These films were unique in their time and could not be made now. They developed as opportunities arose, using borrowed equipment, volunteer crews, small budgets, and a great deal of learning and experimentation in the editing room. The films concentrate on performance and by implication how the performers’ aesthetics both inform and reflect societal values. The films strive to make a pleasing and engaging record of small moments from the vastness of American expressive traditional arts; neither exhaustive nor statistically representative, but survivals of a time now past.

The films were made in the Anthropology Department of San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University at Northridge). Edmund Carpenter founded the department with the intention of moving anthropology beyond the book. He felt that the realities and insights of anthropology were often better represented in the arts than in scholarly texts and between 1957 and 1967 he led a flourishing and experimental department. In addition to cultural anthropologists, physical anthropologists and linguists, his faculty included folklorist Bess Lomax Hawes along with artists, musicians, animators and filmmakers. It was in this context that Bess Hawes made these works. After leaving CSU-Northridge in 1976, she became the first director of the Folk and Traditional Arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts. Though she did not make other films, she has been an ardent supporter of filmmakers who present traditional artists with dignity and enthusiasm.

There were no outlets for these films. They were too specialized for theatrical or television release and not specifically geared to the educational market. They mostly languished, known only to a few aficionados. This release on DVD brings the four films together in a single package with supplementary notes written at the time.

The DVD includes a booklet about the films.