Filmmakers and Projects Supported by Media Working Group

Louis Guida, Co-Media

Tales of the Kentucky Derby: You Ain't Seen Nothin'  This documentary look at the Kentucky Derby which juxtaposes tales of three Kentucky Derbies with segments on society parties, street vendors, breeding and auctions.  Aired nationally on PBS.

Andrew Garrison, North Fork Films

Maxine/The Wilgus Stories is the third in a series of three 20-minute film adaptations of the short stories of Kentucky writer Gurney Norman. Based on Norman’s book Kinfolks and set in the Kentucky coalfields, The Wilgus Stories follows a young man’s coming of age, from tender youth to early manhood. In the first segment, “Fat Monroe,” Wilgus, played by William Johnson, is nine years old and has run away from home. The boy is picked up by a genially cantankerous redneck, a leg-pulling, tale-spinning Ned Beatty, who gives him a somewhat harrowing ride home in a rust-bucket Chevy pickup. “Night Ride” features Wilgus at age 14, taking off on a joyride with his trouble-making, emotionally confused Uncle Delmer (Taylor) in a cherry-red Chevy sedan. Spurred on by alcohol, Delmer leads Wilgus on a firearm-blasting rite of passage in which he learns more about his father and approaches the cusp of manhood. In “Maxine,” a collegiate Wilgus, on a visit home, spends an evening with an old family friend, portrayed by Robin Mullins. A single mother, she has reluctantly left her newly married daughter with a husband she knows will do her wrong. Delicately moving between their mutual hopes and fears, the characters mourn the loss of a loved-one’s potential as a way to examine losses of their own. The story challenges viewers to re-examine long-standing images of mountain women. The series explores the influence of place, community, and the strengths and stresses of kinship, in a context of economic necessity and changing social roles.  Broadcast on PBS affiliates around the country in August 2000.

Helen DeMichiel, Thirty Leaves Productions

The Gender Chip Project -  How best to reach young women than through story-based learning? In 1998 filmmaker Helen De Michiel brought together several young women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University in Columbus. They agreed to meet regularly over their next three years of college, and create a community to share experiences and struggles as women stepping into traditionally male domains.