UNC-TV ONLINE: North Carolina Visions:

Being a Joines: Life in the Brushy Mountains
(DOCUMENTARY– 53 minutes, 5 seconds)
Daniel Patterson and Tom Davenport

John E. “Frail” Joines, the central characters in this remarkable story, is a native of North Carolina’s Brushy Mountains, whose story chronicles the enormous changes that swept rural Appalachia in his lifetime -- and the cultural resources with which ordinary people met them. A compelling storyteller, Joines comically and poignantly reflects on how this struggle with nature shaped the behavior and values of the 19th Century “rough south.”

Filmmaker Profile: DANIEL PATTERSON & TOM DAVENPORT
Daniel Patterson, the project director for Being a Joines, worked with producer/director Tom Davenport on this folklore documentary. Patterson is Kenan Professor of English and Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill, former chair of the Curriculum in Folklore at UNC-CH and a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. An independent filmmaker from Delaplane, VA, Tom Davenport is well-versed in Chinese language and culture. His first film, in 1969, was based on the Chinese martial art T’ai Chi Ch’uan, has subsequently won awards for his films including the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon for The Shakers, The Frog King and Bearskin.