BRATTLEBORO — The documentary Linefork, which depicts the daily life of legendary banjo player Lee Sexton in detail, will be screened in the Sanctuary at Epsilon Spires on Friday, Nov. 19, followed by a discussion with co-director Vic Rawlings.
Linefork was recorded over three years in Sexton's hometown of Linefork, Ky., where he has lived on the same plot of land since his birth in 1927.
The film forgoes traditional documentarian elements like voiceovers and talking heads in favor of prolonged shots of the elderly Sexton and his wife, Opal, as they engage in the routines that fill their days in rural Appalachia.
“We went there for the music - it's absolutely brilliant banjo playing,” Rawlings said in a news release.
Rawlings, a musician and instrument builder, has performed for many years in the electroacoustic genre. He has also held teaching positions and residencies at schools such as the Oberlin Conservatory, MIT, and Harvard.
He had originally made audio recordings of Sexton playing music but subsequently purchased his first video camera after the idea of a film about Sexton's life took shape.
“Being with Lee and Opal was a profound experience for us, and we were compelled to share that the best we could,” says Rawlings about the time that he and co-Director Jeff Daniel Silva spent with the Sextons in Linefork. “That human-to-human experience was what kept us focused when we were making the film and attempting to tell the story of being there.”
Through presenting footage of Sexton's life without overt commentary, Linefork is able to weave themes of work, aging, partnership, artistic practice, and the social and economic realities of life in a coal-mining region of Kentucky.
“Narration and narrative take up a lot of room. Steering clear of those elements allowed us to open the lens onto the subjects themselves,” says Rawlings. “In Linefork, we want to invite viewers to see and hear for themselves, so we allow them to look, to see a shot longer, to listen.”
Preceding the film will be a banjo performance by Carling Berkhout, a writer and musician from southern Vermont. She describes her most recent album (Soon Comes Night, as part of the duo Carling & Will) as expanding “beyond the confines of old-time, with a modern sound deeply rooted in the style and history of traditional music.”
Tickets for the event are $18 and can be purchased at epsilonspires.org.