With the dawn of a new year it seems appropriate to take stock of the past and plan for the future. 2011 was an exciting year in many ways and 2012 brings challenging new opportunities.

Over the past 20 years I have produced a variety of documentaries. I am extremely grateful to my employer, the University of Alabama Center for Public TV & Radio for the opportunity to do so, and I have often commented about how fortunate I felt to work in my dream job. The funding for new documentaries has dwindled over the last couple of years, but some of my past documentaries continued to reach new audiences in 2011.

As 2011 began, “Songs Inside the Box” was presented at the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, Australia. It was awarded First Place Documentary by the Prometheus Film Festival in August and was screened in Paris, France in October. Selected scenes from the documentary were part of a special exhibit on cigar box guitars at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California for several months in 2011.

I was honored to present “Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour” to an enthusiastic audience in Huntsville, Alabama in June 2011. I wish I could have been there when it was screened in Paris, France in October and Rome, Italy in November but I received good feedback from both events.

I was also honored to serve as a juror for the High School Film category for the 2011 On Location Memphis Film Festival and the 2011 Mississippi High School Film Competition. The latter event, held in Tupelo, offered me the wonderful opportunity to meet with the students in the competition. Some of them said they planned to attend the University of Alabama because of the excellent communications programs offered here. Being a part of those programs is a source of great pride for me. I taught “Intro to Media Production” classes in both the Spring and Fall semesters of 2011.

2011 also brought opportunities to collaborate with my colleagues at Alabama Public Television (APT) and Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB). The UA Center for Public Television & Radio joined with APT to produce “Alabama Stars in Education” in May and I have been working with MPB as director of “Sucarnochee Revue,” a music series which airs on both Alabama and Mississippi public TV stations each week.

I also had the privilege of collaborating with my colleagues at Alabama Public Radio for part of 2011 as the editor of weekly commentaries by Kathryn Tucker Windham.

Midway through 2011, I began working with the development of new content for the University of Alabama’s TV stations WVUA and WUOA. I am producing short documentaries for the stations and I look forward to what the future holds in 2012.

Max Shores.

“Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour,” a documentary from the University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio, will be shown in Rome, Italy as a part of the 7th annual Mojo Station Blues Festival. The three day festival features performances by blues musicians and films on blues related subjects.

The Mojo Station radio program was created by Gianluca Diana and Pietropaolo Moroncelli in 2002 to celebrate and promote blues music in Italy. The program led to the creation of the Mojo Station Blues Society, a non profit organization, which established the Mojo Station Blues Festival in 2005. Each year the festival brings live blues music and documentary films to an appreciative audience in Rome.

“Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour” will screen on Friday, November 4th at the Cinema Palazzo. The film film tells the story of a Memphis, Tennessee based musician who draws his inspiration from the hill country style of music from north Mississippi. Johnston is a popular performer at venues around the world but at the time the documentary was shot, he was performing primarily on the sidewalk along Beale Street in Memphis. The documentary has been screened at film festivals across the US and Europe and has won five festival awards. It was produced and directed by Max Shores.

For more information:
The Mojo Station Program Podcast
Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour (info about the film)

Max Shores.

Two documentaries produced by the University of Alabama will be screened in Paris, France during October, 2011. The documentaries, originally made for broadcast in Alabama, have both had an impact well beyond the boundaries of the state.

“Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour” will screen as a part of the Raw Sounds Movie Club on October 17th at Le Fanfaron (6 rue de la Main d’Or). The film, which won the Best Alabama Film Award at the 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, tells the story of a Memphis, Tennessee musician who was performing frequently in Alabama during the time it was produced. Johnston draws his inspiration from a unique style of blues music that comes from north Mississippi’s hill country and the film serves as an introduction to the musician and the style of music. It has been shown across the US, England, and Germany but this screening will be the French premiere.

“Songs Inside The Box” will screen during the Cigar Box Guitare Mini-Festival on October 22nd at Boullion Belge (6 Rue Planchat). The film chronicles an Alabama cigar box guitar festival which attracts participants from across the US. It recently won the Best Feature Length Documentary Award at the 2011 Prometheus Film Festival and portions of the documentary are currently being shown at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles as a part of an exhibit of cigar box guitars. Through “Songs Inside The Box,” the Alabama festival has led to similar festivals around the world and the film will be shown at the first such festival in Paris. It has previously screened in Australia, England, Germany, and across the US.

Both documentaries were directed by Max Shores at the UA Center for Public Television and Radio. The Center was created in 1955 to produce programming for the newly formed Alabama Public Television network of stations covering the state. For the past 20 years the department has focused primarily on the production of single topic documentaries which have shared aspects of life in Alabama and the southeastern US with audiences around the world. In addition to broadcast distribution, CPT&R documentaries have been screened at international film festivals where they have won awards.

The presentation of these two music documentaries within one week in Paris is a coincidence but the stories told by the two films are related. It was through Richard Johnston’s use of cigar box guitars that director Shores learned of the widespread interest in the instruments and the Alabama festival that brings cigar box guitar makers and musicians together.

Max Shores.

Richard Johnston plays a cigar box guitar in a Mississippi Juke Joint

“Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour,” the award-winning documentary by Center for Public Television & Radio producer/director Max Shores, will be shown at the 7th Annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Huntsville, Alabama at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4th. Shores will be in attendance and will answer questions after the screening.

Presentation of this University of Alabama documentary is just a part of the two-day festival which will begin on Friday, June 3rd at 6:00 p.m. with a free performance by cigar box guitar musicians, Hymn for Her. Following the documentary screening on Saturday there will be performances by Pat, John and Uncle Chuck Nickel, Microwave Dave, John Lowe, Seven Hills Stomp, Nadaband and Earl Williams. Bill Jehle’s Cigar Box Guitar Museum will be on display as well as demonstrations of various hand crafted instruments. The admission charge for the Saturday events will be $15.00.

Richard Johnston is a Memphis musician who is inspired by the music of the hill country of north Mississippi. He and John Lowe worked together to create a unique cigar box guitar which allows a musician to play both bass guitar and lead guitar simultaneously. It was through Johnston that Shores learned of the annual CBG event in Huntsville which ultimately became the subject of his documentary, “Songs Inside The Box.”

The 7th Annual Cigar Box Guitar Festival will take place in the Flying Monkey Arts Center located at Lowe Mill. The address is 2211 Seminole Drive Southwest Huntsville, AL 35805.

Here is a schedule of events during the festival:

6/3 – Friday – Hymn for Her, Admission FREE Concerts on the Dock (6pm – 9pm)

6/4 – Saturday – Artist Market 2nd floor, handcrafted instruments and more… (Noon – 4pm)

Demonstrations: How to Build a Cigar Box Guitar with John Nickel (1pm & 3pm)
1st floor studios : Nickel Cigar Box Guitar

Workshops:
12:30 & 2pm – “Build a One- String CBG with Steve Webb
1st floor classroom – $30. materials & tools provided questions or registration: backpocketcrafts@yahoo.com

1:30 & 2:30pm – “Learn to Play a Cigar Box Guitar” with Pat Nickel
1st floor lounge near Nickel’s CBG Studio

Jam Sessions: 1st floor lounge area / 2nd floor connector / on the dock
Special Guest, Max Shores, documentary filmmaker
“Songs Inside the Box” and “Hill Country Troubadour”
2nd floor Film Co-op / Don Tingle studio near theater

Flymo Theater Extravaganza – Saturday – 4th (4pm – 12am)
4pm – “Hill Country Troubadour” film screening, Admission $5
“Live” Cigar Box Guitar Music ’till midnight, Admission $10
6pm – Pat Nickel
7pm – Seven Hills Stomp
8pm – Microwave Dave
9pm – John Lowe
10pm – Earl Williams
11pm – Nadaband

For more information:

Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour
Songs Inside The Box
The Flying Monkey Arts Center
Hymn for Her
Bill Jehle’s Cigar Box Guitar Museum

Source: The University of Alabama Center for Public TV & Radio

Max Shores.

"Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour," my documentary about the amazing street musician and one-man-band Richard Johnston, will be shown on November 29th at the Don Gibson Theater in Shelby, North Carolina. The special screening will be a part of the state of North Carolina’s celebration hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s "New Harmonies" traveling exhibit.

The exhibit commemorates the legacy of American music with interactive kiosks devoted to jazz, the blues, R&B, bluegrass, country western, zydeco, Cajun, Tejano, klezmer, folk, and gospel. It traces the emergence of such genres to African influences and the traditions of early European immigrants to North America. New Harmonies “tells a new American story” with displays of vintage sheet music, photographs, and instruments such as the dulcimer, banjo, diddley bow, spoons, washboard, and drums. A listening station provides an opportunity to experience music firsthand with legendary performers such as B.B. King, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, Bob Dylan, and Earl Scruggs.

New Harmonies is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

For more information:
The Don Gibson Theater
Destination Cleveland County, NC
Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour

Max Shores.

Richard Johnston plays his Lowebow in a Mississippi Juke Joint

Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour will be screened on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi at the Keg and Barrel Brew Pub. The documentary screening will be followed by a preview of the pilot for a TV series, Unmanageable, featuring performances by Johnston. Richard Johnston will be in attendance and will answer questions about the instruments that he plays and the history behind his music.

Johnston is a street musician who plays regularly on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. My documentary about him tells the story behind his music, featuring him live on Beale Street and in north Mississippi where he meets with his mentors, R. L. Burnside and Jessie Mae Hemphill.

Unmanageable is a TV series produced by Johnston and directed by Jennifer Johnson. I had the privilege of running a camera for the production which took place on Beale Street last July 4th.

These special screenings are a part of a two day celebration of the Keg and Barrel Brew Pub’s fifth anniversary. Johnston will perform at the club on Friday, April 16th.

For more information:

The Keg and Barrel Brew Pub

Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour

Still images from Unmanageable

Buy a copy of Unmanageable

RichardJohnston.com

Max Shores.

Hill Country Troubadour
This film on Memphis musician Richard Johnston won Best Alabama Film and Best Documentary at the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, Best of Show and Best Documentary at the Macon Film Festival, and Second Place Documentary at the Tupelo Film Festival. It has been shown at festivals and special screenings around the world. Click for more… Holy Smoke Over Birmingham
A mouth-watering survey of nine top barbecue restaurants in Birmingham, this documentary aired on Alabama Public Television in 2006 and was screened at the 2008 New York City Food Film Festival while New Yorkers dined on southern-style barbecued pork and chicken. Click for more…

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Max Shores.