Filmaker hosts screenings April 1

Veteran documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Barret will screen her award-winning documentary "Stranger with a Camera" Thursday, April 1, at 12:30 p.m. in the Greenbriar Theater in Appalachian State University's Plemmons Student Union.

The documentary tells the story of the tragic 1967 confrontation between Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor and Eastern Kentucky resident Hobart Ison, which ended in murder.

The film premiered at the Sundance Festival and provides an interrogation of modern media while offering a meditation on Appalachia's place in the American imagination.

At 7 p.m. April 1, Barrett will screen two short documentaries produced in Watauga County in the 1970s.

"Fixin' to Tell about Jack" is her 1976 portrait of Beech Mountain storyteller Ray Hicks and "Waterground" is a 1978 Appalshop documentary featuring the Winebarger mill on Meat Camp Creek. These films will be shown in the fellowship hall of Proffit's Grove Baptist Church in Meat Camp in Watauga County.

Both events are free and open to the public. The events are sponsored by Appalachian's Center for Appalachian Studies, University Documentary Film Services and University College. For more information, contact Tom Hansell at (828) 262-7730.

A native Kentuckian, Barret's work explores the history, culture and people of Appalachia.

Barret is a recipient of a Kentucky Arts Council Fellowship in Media Arts, NEA Southeast Media Fellowship and Rockefeller Foundation Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship.

She is currently producing a film about the Kentucky photographs of William Gedney.