Past Season

Tom Whitaker: Potter at Large
(DOCUMENTARY, 9 minutes, 56 seconds)

This hometown documentary follows Tom Whitaker as he makes and sells pottery at his Mooresboro, NC, home.  Whitaker is steeped in the rich tradition of Catawba Valley potters, but he is also a distinctive character who finds a way to put his own indelible stamp on everything he does.

Filmmaker Profile: Mary M. Dalton

Tom Whitaker: Potter at Large is Mary Dalton's third documentary and her second work about a North Carolina folk artist.  After many years of working on other people's film projects and on works for hire, she started making her own films three years ago, including I’m Not My Brother’s Keeper:  Leadership and Civil Rights in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Sam McMillan:  The Dot Man—named Best Independent Documentary at the Carolina Film and Video Festival in 2003. Dalton teaches film studies at Wake Forest University, is a media critic for WFDD-FM and is the author of scholarly works including, The Hollywood Curriculum: Teachers in the Movies.

Local Angles

• Tom Whitaker and filmmaker Mary Dalton are both North Carolina natives with roots in Cleveland County, which is where he has lived his entire life and where Dalton has spent many pleasurable days visiting at her grandparents’ farms. 
• Mary Dalton has spent most of her life living in Guilford and Forsyth Counties.
• Tom Whitaker:  Potter at Large has screened at TLMSFF (Totally Last Minute Short Film Festival) in High Point, NC, earlier this month. 
• Each member of the Tom Whitaker:  Potter at Large crew is also a North Carolina native:  Videographer, Phil Smoot; Editor, Brett Ingram; and Recording Engineer, Sid Williams.