Episode #204: His Eye is on the Sparrow & Girls’ Hoops

His Eye is on the Sparrow
“Tells a story of resistance, a belief in freedom, and the importance of culture and religion in shaping community life.” --John David, Southern Appalachian Labor School

Synopsis: His Eye is On the Sparrow is a portrait of Ethel Caffie Austin, a powerful African American singer known as West Virginia’s “First Lady of Gospel.”

Full Description: Ethel Caffie-Austin, a daughter of the coalfields, is West Virginia’s “First Lady of Gospel Music.” This program features Ethel performing a range of spirituals, hymns and contemporary gospel numbers that represent the rich cultural heritage of African American song and worship. Ethel’s enthusiasm and belief in the redemptive power of faith are evident as she is seen teaching gospel to a youth group, ministering to inmates at a state prison, and leading the choir at the Black Sacred Music Festival in Institute, WV. Oral history, archival material, and interviews are combined with performance footage to tell a powerful story of personal freedom and triumph through faith, wisdom, and the support of a caring community.

Funding provided by the KET Fund for Independent Production, West Virginia Humanities Council, West Virginia Commission on the Arts, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Commission on Religion in Appalachia.

Producer – Anne Lewis: Director of Appalshop’s Headwaters Television project since 1982, Anne Lewis has also produced many of the programs in the first and second series. A recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship, Anne’s 1989 documentary On Our Own Land received the duPont-Columbia Award for Independent Broadcast Journalism. Prior to joining Appalshop, Anne was Associate Director of Harlan County, U.S.A.

Screening Highlights ** West Virginia International Film Festival * Workers’ Cultural Festival, Beard’s Fork, WV

Click here for zipped package of these print quality photos.

filmmakers Anne Lewis and Laura Royster with Ethel Caffie Austin

Ethel Caffie Austin in concert

Girls’ Hoops
“A brilliant film that fully captures what women’s basketball has meant and continues to mean to women athletes everywhere.” --Dr. Lynda Ransdell, University of Kentucky

“Like the game itself, Girls’ Hoops is fast paced and replete with human drama.”
-- M Magazine

Synopsis: Girls Hoops profiles several recent teams while exploring the history of girls’ high school basketball in Kentucky starting in the 1920s.

Full Description: Of special interest amidst the debate over the value of Title IX support for women’s athletics, Girls' Hoops explores the history of girls’ high school basketball in Kentucky -- from its first heyday in the 1920s, followed by a 42-year ban on statewide competition, to its rebirth in the 1970s and development into the fiercely competitive, popular sport it has become today. Filmed over the course of a basketball season, the program features exhausting practices, intense games, rousing half-time talks, championship performances and enthusiastic fans from small coal mining communities where a winning girls team is the talk of the town. Girls’ Hoops includes up-close interviews with today’s players and coaches, comments from a 94-year old player from a 1920s championship team, and interviews and game footage of the woman who broke the gender barrier in the mid-‘70s.

A co-production of Appalshop with WKYU/Bowling Green in association with NETA and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding from the KET Fund for Independent Production, Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Humanities Council, Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Producer -- Justine Richardson: Justine represents a second generation of Appalshop filmmakers, joining the staff in 1994. After training on a number of productions, she directed her first documentary, Girls’ Hoops, completing it in 1998 with assistance from Stephanie Whetstone.

Screening Highlights ** WorldFest, Houston International Film Festival – Silver Award * American Sociological Association * Big Muddy Film Festival * Louisville Film & Video Festival - Juror Award * Nashville Independent Film Festival * Athens International Film & Video Festival

Click here for zipped package of these print quality photos.

A championship game

Filming Margaret Boggs, a member of a 1930s-era state champion team

Photos for press and private use. All rights reserved. Photos by Jeffrey Whetstone.