Film Screening: Hillbilly

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2022

Time: 6:30 p.m. EDT (Doors open at 6:00 p.m., film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes)

Location: Performance Theater, Birthplace of Country Music

Cost: Free and open to the public, please RSVP
($5 suggested donation, all proceeds supports museum educational and public programming)

RSVP HERE

“With an endorsement from Dolly Parton herself, this investigative look at the unfairly maligned Appalachian people draws back the curtain on years of painful media representation. Hillbilly celebrates the humanity and diversity of this misunderstood American populace at a time when we all need to understand each other a little better.” – IndieWire

Directed by Emmy-Nominees Sally Rubin and Ashley York

Featuring bell hooks, Ronny Cox and Billy Redden from Deliverance, director Michael Apted, activists and writers Frank X Walker, Crystal Good, and Silas House, and musicians Sam Gleaves and Amythyst Kiah, hillbilly arrives at a crucial moment, confronting depictions of Appalachian and other rural people on a broad, national level.

This movie is for anyone who is a hillbilly or anyone who knows one.

Appalachia is no stranger to the complexity of media representation. Since our country’s inception, there has been a palpable divide between Urban and Rural America. Within this great divide, certain regions are viewed as “other,” and blamed for America’s social ills.

Since the presidential election, the cultural divide in America has expanded. Stereotyping and slurs are rampant, finger-pointing and name-calling abound. hillbilly goes on a personal and political journey into the heart of the Appalachian coalfields, exploring the role of media representation in the creation of the iconic American “hillbilly,” and examining the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of this infamous stereotype.

Filmed in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, hillbilly uncovers an unexpected set of artists, poets, activists, queer musicians, “Affrilachian” poets, and intersectional feminists — all unexpected voices emerging from this historically misunderstood region.

Hillbilly is a timely and urgent exploration of how we see and think about poverty and rural identity in contemporary America, offering a call for dialogue during this divisive time in U.S. history.

This film screening is complementary programming to the museum special exhibit “It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”: A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew, on display now through August 7.