In this new live music and film piece presented by the College of Liberal Arts' SAC Presents series, acclaimed musician Jenny Scheinman invites us into the captivating visual world of H. Lee Waters, who documented over 118 small towns in the southeast between 1936-42. Waters’ films are of regular people going about their lives – mill workers streaming out of factories, a mother and daughter dancing on a dirt road, an old man reading a war-time headline, children racing in slow motion toward a huge wooden teeter totter. Scheinman and filmmaker Finn Taylor have re-edited these iconic images to Scheinman’s music, and created a new movie with live performance that speaks to any community as much as to the towns where the video footage was filmed.

“These are America’s home movies. They contain a clue to our nature, an imprint of our ancestry. They were shot before Americans had sophisticated understanding of film, and capture truthfulness that one is hard-pressed to find in this day and age now that we are immersed in a world of social media, video, and photography. These people can dance. Girls catapult each other off seesaws and teenage boys hang on each other’s arms.  Toothless men play resonator guitars on street corners, and toddlers push strollers through empty fields. They remind us of our resilience and of our immense capacity for joy even in the hardest of times.” 

- Jenny Scheinman

Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait was commissioned by Duke Performances at Duke University. The piece premiered at Duke’s Reynolds Industries Theater on Friday, March 20, 2015.

Tickets $30-35 advance, $35-40 door. All seating reserved. OSU students free with ID (limited to 100 tickets). Corvallis Arts for All discounts apply, allowing purchase of up to two tickets for $5 each with presentation of valid SNAP/Oregon Trail Card. Student and CAFA tickets subject to availability. For accommodations relating to a disability please call 541-737-5592, preferably at least one week in advance.