Prince of Dark Corners

From the weblog of gulahiyi.blogspot.com
RUMINATIONS FROM THE DISTANT HILLS
Watch "Prince of Dark Corners"
Coming up Thursday, July 10 at 10:00PM on South Carolina ETV (on the Southern Lens program) is a peformance of Prince of Dark Corners, written by the prolific Sylva storyteller and artist Gary Carden.I love it when these great old stories of Appalachia come to life.

From the Prince of Dark Corners website:At the time of his capture in 1881, Lewis Redmond was the most famous outlaw in the country, outshining contemporaries Billy-The-Kid and Jesse James. To the people of Southern Appalachia he was an American Robin Hood, fighting revenuers and bootlegging ‘moonshine’ to pay their taxes and save their land in the lean and hopeless years of Reconstruction.At the same time, Northern journalists depicted him as a degenerate, morally bankrupt and cold-blooded murderer. His story sheds light on a time and place in American history that has long been shrouded in mystery.Neal Hutcheson's film production of Carden's story finds just the right balance: complementing, but not overpowering, what is essentially a one-man stage performance.We see first a young Lewis Redmond and then an older Lewis Redmond, both portrayed by Milton Higgins. He brings us an outlaw who is as wry and wistful as he is defiant. The language of Carden's script is deeply rooted in this place, expressing loss, alienation, and the power of memory. And though the words themselves evoke vivid images, Hutcheson adds to the mood with shots of foggy mountains, old photos, paintings and ancient maps.Another refreshing aspect of the production is the musical score, which avoids the predictable dulcimers and banjos of every other Appalachian film you've ever seen.Posted by GULAHIYI at 7:35 AMLabels: cultural memory, southern appalachian