This thread on Southern foodways leads me to suggest a few really
interesting documentary videos done by South Carolina videographer Stan
Woodward. The videos really place the preparation and consumption of
"Southern" foods in context. The material culture sidebars are really good,
too.

1. "It's Grits". A classsic in the field of first-person filmmaking, It's
Grits examines the culture of the South through the metaphor of "grits," the
true common demominator of Southern cuisine, cutting across al reace and
class lines. Winner of the American Film Festival's Blue Ribbon. Agee Films
Web site <http://www.ageefilms.org/>

2. "Brunswick Stew". In Brunswick Stew, Woodward uses his hand-held camera
to explore a community food culture rooted in the mingling of Native
American, African, and European culinary traditions during colonial times. A
passionate and amusing testimony to community cooking, Brunswick Stew
features protraits of eight old-time stewmasters as they concoct their
secret recipes and tell yarns around steaming pots in a firehouses,
churchyards, and fairgrounds. Agee Films Web site
<http://www.ageefilms.org/>

3. "Southern Stews". Stan Woodward, folklife researcher and
producer-director of documentaries on Southern culture, is currently working
with McKissick Museum curators Saddler Taylor and Jay Williams on a video
documentation project , supported by the Southern Humanities Media Fund,
called Southern Stews.  This folklife video project will be completed by
April, 2002, and will be offered to educational television outlets in the
southeastern states during the coming programming season.  Southern Stews
examines several of the South's major foodways traditions. Stew making
becomes a ritual at family reunions, church homecomings and community
events, retaining many of of these connections when done in many of the
region's many small family-run barbecue restaurants.  Among the stews
addressed by the film are the Georgia and Virginia varieties of Brunswick
Stew, Kentucky Burgoo, Carolina Hash and Virginia Sheep Stew. McKissick
Museum Web site
<http://www.cla.sc.edu/MCKS/research/Woodward_Southern_Stews.html>

All of Woodwards videos are available directly from him at The Woodward
Studio, P.O. Box 5163, Greenville, SC 29606.

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DSR.
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David S. Rotenstein, Ph.D., RPA
Consulting Historian
Silver Spring, MD 20910
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