Hard
Work
****
Video Librarian, March/April 2005
(Volume 20, Issue 2)
“Women get paid less than men, but rent costs the same, and our laundry and
clothing cost more.” Although it might sound contemporary, this complaint
comes from a 19th-century worker. In 1888, Flora Haines was hired by Maine’s
new Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics to hand out surveys to over
600 working women, and while some of the resulting comments may sound
surprising to modern ears (one worker is unhappy not getting 10 hours a
day--i.e., enough hours to make ends meet), most complaints accurately
reflect the miseries of doing repetitive work in uncomfortable postures, in
unsafe and unsanitary buildings, for the typical 10 hours a day, six days a
week. Filmmaker Jim Sharkey's Hard Work examines the history of women
working outside the home/off the farm in the late 19th century through the
survey responses, exploring tensions between natives and foreign workers,
between women who worked to eat and girls who worked for “pin money,” and
even between adults and cheaper child labor. It’s a rare treasure to find so
many working women’s first-person accounts from this era, combined with
photos--all from Maine archives--that have not been widely seen before.
While centered on Maine (and to a lesser extent, the National Historic Park
at Lowell, MA), the wealth of information related to women working in early
industrial America is of national interest (and should not be relegated to
some local history ghetto). Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R.
Reagan)
Educational Media Reviews
Online, June 2005. Highly
Recommended
A
government agency report hardly sounds like the subject of a scintillating
documentary and yet
Hard Work “To Make Both Ends Meet”:
Maine Women’s Voices, 1888 is just that. In 1888, the Maine
State Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics conducted a survey of women
in the state’s workforce. An open-ended question allowed women to respond
with their suggestions on how their working conditions could be improved.
Hard Work presents their
answers as well as providing an engrossing picture of Maine’s 19th century
industrial climate.
The
film is organized loosely into sections covering various aspects of working life
including living arrangements, wage structure, child labor, immigrants, and
working conditions. The original comments are accompanied by still photographs
from the time period. A Maine historian provides an overview of the factors that
gave rise to the influx of women into the workforce as well as giving viewers a
clearer contextual picture of each of the facets addressed. She also recounts
the results of the report.
The
real power of the documentary comes from the responses of the women in question.
Their answers are often thoughtful, articulate, surprisingly astute, and
sometimes even applicable to modern working life. Some of the issues that
concerned the workers might have come from a contemporary worker; women were
worried about water quality, workplace safety, health and fire hazards, salary
inequity, and even immigration controls. The historian explains early on that
the report was a document of tremendous richness of details and it is easy to
see why.
Hard Work brings to life opinions
and attitudes that are all too often grossly simplified.
If
there is a fault with
Hard Work, it is the sometimes
overly long photographic montages accompanied by musical pieces. However, the
documentary's superior content compensates for this comparatively minor issue.
It could be used with a wide range of audiences and for a variety of subjects.
Hard Work is
highly recommended.
Penobscot Basket Maker
-
Reviewed by Carol Toner, Maine Studies,
University of Maine, 2003.
In
his latest film, “Penobscot Basket Maker”, filmmaker Jim Sharkey has
produced a beautiful documentary that weaves together the life and artistry
of Indian Island’s renowned basket maker, Barbara Francis.
Displaying his skills in both filming and editing, Sharkey presents
Francis’s work and her story with great sensitivity and insight.
Barbara
Francis’s baskets have won honors at nationally recognized Indian art shows,
including Best of Show at the Lawrence Indian Art Show (1999) and 1st Place
in the 81st Annual Santa Fe Indian Market (2002). Displayed
in many museums and galleries, her baskets are remarkable pieces of art that
reflect the long history of Penobscot basket making. As Sharkey’s film
illustrates, her baskets also reflect Francis’s own history.
Born and
raised on Indian Island, Barbara Francis left home as a teenager only to
face poverty and racism. When she returned to the Island - alone,
pregnant, and destitute - two older Penobscot women offered to take her in.
They taught her to make baskets, and at the same time they taught her about
her heritage. These women, and later her grandmother and other women,
shared their skills with Barbara, passing along the distinctive Penobscot
basket styles. While basket making became her life’s work, it also brought
her a deeper appreciation for Penobscot history and culture.
Barbara
narrates her life story while weaving her baskets, stopping to explain the
fine points of basketry - choosing just the right pieces of brown ash,
alternating light and dark shades of ash, weaving in a few rows of sweet
grass to make the basket unique, and finally working in the fancy porcupine
weave. Although the baskets appear empty, she explains, they are full
of history, tradition, culture and spirituality. She points out the
“circle of life’ created by the weave in the bottom of the basket.
Just as her elders taught her how to make baskets, she is teaching the next
generation. It is her contribution to preserving the Penobscot
Nation’s culture.
Jim
Sharkey has captured the remarkable beauty of the baskets and Barbara’s
philosophical musings while also providing something of the larger
historical context through many still photos of Indian Island. His
occasional use of Hawk Henries’ exquisite Native American flute sound
provides a lovely musical accompaniment. It is Sharkey’s attention to
fine detail that elevates this film. For example he focuses on the
persistent sound of pounding as Barbara’s husband Marty prepare the ash, and
then on the humming sound created as Barbara quickly braids sweet grass
stretched on the back of a chair. Like the baskets themselves, the film is a
carefully crafted piece that will help preserve the art of Penobscot basket
making.
Video
Librarian 2003
An
arts and crafts biographical profile of Native American basket maker Barbara
Francis - a member of the Penobscot tribe, born and raised on Indian Isle,
Maine - Penobscot Basket Maker tells the story of a woman who left the
island as a teenager, but came back at the age of 20, alone and pregnant,
and was taken in by Alberta Nicola and Violet Frances Shay, two basket
makers who taught her their secrets, as well as helped her discover more
about her Penobscot heritage. Backed by a pleasant soundtrack of Native
American music, Barbara's tale is literally interwoven with her work, as she
shares her personal history while weaving baskets, offering viewers a
close-up look at the detail that goes into even the simplest of designs.
While presenting an engaging peek into a community where tradition still
flourishes, and providing beautiful examples of the artist's work, the
film's compelling center remains Barbara's story, who today combats
rheumatoid arthritis - a heartbreaking condition for an artist who works
with her hands.
***
- Recommended. Video Librarian 2003.
Viewer comments on Penobscot Basket
Maker:
Your video of Barbara is a joy.
It was great to see how the baskets were made from start to finish. Thank
you again for your work on this outstanding video. Viewer comments from
California.
Barbara Francis' story is
quite amazing and she truly is an inspiration. You have done a masterful job
of capturing her, her art, and her history on film. Thank you so much!
Viewer comments from Ohio.
The quality and clarity of
the film was far beyond my expectations! It is by far one of the best
produced documentaries of its type. Viewer comments from Maine.
The Fourteenth Shop
-
Video Librarian, August 2002
***
Award for Creative Excellence
- 2002 International Film and Video Festival, Redondo Beach, California.
Seagrove,
North Carolina has long been a center for handmade pottery, thanks to
clay-rich native soil that has attracted generations of potters. Unlike the
old-time masters profiled in
Crawdad Slip: The Luck Family Potters; New Life: The Cole Family Potters;
and Melvin, this documentary focuses on a family of "newcomers"
to the area - mere thirty-year residents. Al and Milly McCanless, who bought
a farm in 1973 as idealistic back-to-the-earth urban hippies and then
utterly failed at farming, moved into pottery almost by chance. Today, their
Dover Pottery (the "fourteenth shop" in the area), which first specialized
in exquisitely painted majolica-like pottery, has branched out into the
"crystalline" ware which features crystal patterns in the glaze. As with
previous titles in filmmaker Jim Sharkey's series, The Fourteenth Shop
interweaves biographical information with scenes of the potters at work, set
to homemade music. Cubicle-bound artisans can only dream of this life.
Recommended for public libraries and especially for regional collections.
(R. Reagan).
Melvin -
Library Journal, November 15, 2001
Melvin
Owens, of M.L. Owens Pottery in Seagrove, NC, is 83 years old and has been
turning pottery for 70 years. This program lets Owens tell his story as he
works in the shop (turning pots, preparing clay, and chopping wood for the
kiln), plays his guitar and sings, and goes about daily activities. Adding
their perspectives are several of his eight children and one of his
grand-daughters who work with him or in other pottery businesses. Owens
Pottery, according to his son Vernon, is the oldest continuous pottery
manufacturer in North Carolina, having been started in 1895 by Owens's
father. Vernon tells of his father's desperately hard childhood - Owens's
father died when he was six - and his efforts to make a living with his
pottery. Producer Sharkey skillfully mixes voiceovers of Melvin and Vernon,
glimpses of the past through family photos, and comments from other family
members to craft a portrait of a determined, hardworking man who has enjoyed
his life and his craft. This program is an unforgettable portrait of a
person who, although viewing his work as a livelihood rather than as an art,
had a significant influence on North Carolina folk pottery. Sharkey's
original music and Owen's songs form the score for this excellent
production. Recommended for public library collections, especially
those in the region and those with an emphasis on crafts.
Melody Moxley, Rowan County Library, Salisbury, NC.
Video Librarian, January 2001:
Offers an authentic, homespun
slice of life unknown to most Americans, and is well worth considering for
regional and oral history collections.
Crawdad Slip
- Video Librarian, April 2000.
***
1/2
"Slip"
is a kind of pottery glaze made from fine clay thinned with water. Sid Luck,
a fifth generation potter, calls his favorite kind of slip "crawdad slip,"
since he discovered the clay at a stream where his boys were looking for
crawdads one day. Sid, his father Jim, and his son Jason are interviewed
here, each imparting their perspectives on their craft. Jim had to make
pottery during the Depression to help bring in money; Sid enjoyed the craft,
but until the tourist boom hit Pinehurst, NC, pottery was not a way to
support a family; Jason likes fashioning the classic, old-time utility
pieces, not boutique items, but he is studying computer engineering and
isn't interested in staying in his sleepy North Carolina town. Modern
pressures figure large in each man's story, whether it was Jim's handmade
crockery competing against factory-produced products, Sid's wanting to use
local clay even though purchased clay is much cheaper, or Jason's desire to
live somewhere more appealing to a 20-year-old. More than a look at a
time-honored craft, this interesting documentary, with its family photos,
crockery artifacts, and sweet old-time music, is a pleasure in itself.
Recommended, especially for senior centers and public libraries. Aud: P.
(R. Reagan)
BOOKLIST, October 2000
Simply but astutely narrated by fifth-generation potter Sid Luck, this
program lovingly describes the family's pottery heritage, which dates back
to the mid-eighteenth century. Live-action footage of the host creating
beautiful pottery in his studio mixes with vintage photographs, newspaper
articles, and on-camera commentary from artists, apprentices, and others.
The great variety of camera shots and enthusiastic bluegrass background
music superbly blend with narration and visuals. Color and sound resolution
is bell clear. Viewers not only learn about a family legacy but gain an
appreciation for the pottery process while discovering a few simple pottery
techniques. Although somewhat regional in scope, this program will appeal to
anyone who has ever aspired to "throw a pot." For larger public library and
community college collections. (James Scholtz)
Viewer Comments:
"They are great, exactly what
I'd expect and more. Having traveled in the Seagrove area in 1976, I
experienced some great personalities. These videos confirmed the greatness
of these people and their commitment to clay".
New Mexico Viewer
"It has been over ten years since I visited Seagrove and your video has
given me the desire to travel down the highway south and west to enjoy "Jugtown"
once more. Thank you".
North Carolina Viewer