MoMA Celebrates Appalachian Filmmakers - WNYC Culture

That tension of holding the camera while living in the community is at the center of all Appalshop films. Appalshop filmmakers shoot, edit, release, and then, they stay. Relationships change and stories develop around them. “If I do something here, and I think it’s beautiful, but then someone from here sees it and thinks I’ve exploited us, then I have to live with that person,” says Willa Johnson, a 24 year-old Kentucky native and Appalshop filmmaker. “I have to see them everyday and for them to think I don’t love this area.”

Hands On A Hard Body is a 1997 documentary film…about an annual endurance contest in Texas where contestants see who can keep a hand on a pickup truck the longest. The winner wins the vehicle. This American Life just re-aired a remarkable interview with previous contest winner Benny Perkins who paints a vivid picture of how sleep deprivation can turn this simple game into a very strange, intense experience of sleep deprivation and psy-ops. “You’re standing next to the devil,” Perkins once told a competitor. (via This American Life: Hands On A Hard Body - Boing Boing)