Beth Harrington is a Grammy-nominated and award-winning director. Originally from Boston, Harrington now calls Portland her home. Her award-winning musical documentary, The Winding Stream is one of the many films that will be showcased at the 32nd annual Reel Music Festival, which will run from Oct. 10 to Oct. 21.
The long-awaited film will be showing on the opening weekend of the festival. The film recounts the story of two families, Cash and Carter, made legendary by their contributions to the country music scene and intertwined by marriage.
The film starts at the very beginning, with a young A.P. Carter going from town to town selling fruit trees in Virginia to earn a living. We watch as he meets Sara and her cousin Maybelle and they form a musical group: The Carter Family. The band goes on to record songs and records for Ralph Peer, a producer with RCA Records.
And the stream continues to wind, following the three talented musicians. Sara leaves A.P. for Coy Bayes, a man she has fallen for (and he for her) while A.P. was out traveling and looking for new songs and inspiration.
Maybelle has daughters of her own: Helen, June and Anita. The four of them carry on the tradition of music well into the 20th century and beyond. And then, of course, June gives her hand in marriage to one Johnny Cash. And the rest is history.
The score for the film is a collection of songs modified and sung by A.P., Sara and Maybelle, and performed by musicians such as John Prine, Murry Hammond, Grey Delisle and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, just to name a few.
I’ll be all smiles tonight
The Winding Stream has been a labor of love. But its creation has also hinged on trust, which first began after Harrington met Rosanne Cash, the daughter of famed country singer Johnny Cash, while working on her film Welcome to the Club.
In time, Rosanne Cash introduced Harrington to her father. Later she was invited to the Carter Family Fold, a venue founded by the Carter family that holds performances weekly. This was where the idea for The Winding Stream was born, on an evening full of old-time and bluegrass music in Poor Valley, at the foot of Clinch Mountain.
“The Carter family is like the Beatles, in that threads and fingers of their music are woven into everything that came after them,” as Rosanne Cash says in the film.
This family, whose overwhelming contribution to classical country music is undeniable, remains unknown to many. This was part of the inspiration that drove Harrington for 12 years. In the making and completion of this film, she hopes that audiences will gain a finer appreciation for the culture.
“Rosanne Cash and members of the family entrusted me with information and reminiscences about their family,” Harrington said. “I needed to honor their trust by completing the film, no matter how long it took.”
Reel music
The Winding Stream is one of the highlights of the Reel Music Festival for Nick Bruno, the publicity and promotions manager at the Northwest Film Center. But The Winding Stream is just one film being screened for the Reel Music Festival.
“We make a point of mixing in old favorites, such as this year’s inclusion of a 30th anniversary screening of Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense.”
The festival will be an exploration of the active and energizing interplay between sound and image, as well as music and culture. It will feature a wide range of artists, editors, directors and their muses, as well as the music that they work together to create.
This will include collections of vintage performance clips, new documentaries and dramatic films, topped off by cutting edge music videos and animation. Many different genres of music are embraced at this annual event, including blues, jazz, rock, classical, avante-garde and opera.
The films will be screened at the Portland Art Museum, in the Whitsell Auditorium, providing almost a month of melody and motion picture for lovers of music to absorb and enjoy.
So, whether you come to see one film or several, a classic, or something brand new like The Winding Stream, you’re not the only one who is excited for what’s in store this year.
“What Reel Music does is pull together an incredibly concentrated dose of music and film. This year it’s 25 films in 13 days,” Bruno said. “I’m always really excited to see what the festival brings to Portland.”
