Press release from Center for Cultural Preservation
The award-winning moonshine history documentary by David Weintraub and the Center for Cultural Preservation will have its public television debut on PBS NC (formerly UNC-TV) on August 3 at 10:00 p.m.. According to Weintraub, “everything we know about moonshiners and moonshining history is wrong.” The Spirits Still Move Them weaves together interviews with nearly three dozen moonshiners and their families in Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and the Dark Corner of South Carolina to tell a story about moonshine history that’s never been relayed before.
Director Weintraub says, “The myth that all moonshiners are violent, lazy, drunk criminals hiding in the woods wearing long beards and longer arrest records has been recounted by the media for over 100 years. In reality, liquor production was hard, backbreaking work that only the most entrepreneurial farmers conducted which they did in order to survive difficult circumstances and put food on the table. It’s a fascinating story and far more interesting than the myths and distortions we’ve heard.”
Long-time Transylvania County moonshiner, Tommy Dodson says that making liquor was about putting food on the table. “It was the hardest work I’ve ever had to do, but it was about survival. And continuing a mountain legacy.”
In addition to the debut of The Spirits Still Move Them, PBS NC will also feature the Center’s film about the Great Flood of 1916, Come Hell or High Water, Remembering the Great Flood of 1916 on August 24 at 10 p.m.
The Center for Cultural Preservation is a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to working for mountain heritage continuity through oral history, documentary film, education and public programs. For more information about the Center and to purchase its DVDs and make a donation, contact them at (828) 692-8062 or www.saveculture.org
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