Subject: RE: Songcatcher-See the Movie
From:
Desert Dancer
Date: 09 Oct 01 - 05:39 PM
Harpgirl, As Abby says, it's in the film credits, and it's also in the extensive publicity material available on the web (this is the fastest loading way to get at it, the link I posted in early in this thread) that Olive Campbell was the inspiration. And just to make things easier, the relevant text's below.
~ Becky in Tucson
Songcatching: The Heart of the Tale
While researching her script, Greenwald came across the old mountain term "Songcatcher," which refers to anybody who collects songs, whether a singer or an outsider. She also uncovered the real-life history of one of Appalachia's most renowned songcatchers, an East Coast-bred woman named Olive Dame Campbell, who boldly journeyed to the mountains with her minister husband in 1908, a time when few outsiders came to Appalachia. Olive was immediately taken aback by the astonishing music and crafts of the mountain people and began collecting their ancient ballads and studying the ways of their handicrafts. Eventually, she founded the John C. Campbell Folk School, dedicated to fostering traditional Appalachian ways, in Brasstown, North Carolina.
Although Olive Dame Campbell brought many of the songs she heard to the outside world, it wasn't until the British musicologist Cecil J. Sharp published them in 1915 that they began to gain renown. This irony that the songs only escaped national attention until a man became involved didn't escape Greenwald's eye. She decided right away that she wanted a woman at the center of her story one who, like Olive Dame Campbell, had to fight to be taken seriously, and who's number one priority was making the music last.
Dr. Lily Penleric never existed in real-life, but her experiences in the mountains echo many of the real-life Easterners a number of whom were among the country's first female college graduates -- who made their way deep into the hills hoping to bring improved health and education, while preserving the soul-stirring ways in which art naturally mixed with life there. The dilemma Dr. Lily Penleric faces to simply take the music for her own advancement or to help preserve and be a part of the freewheeling lifestyle that led to its creation was also very real.
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sj
