It took almost four hours to get through this: 90 minutes for the feature and well over two hours spent reveling in Carter Family music. Like me, if you think country & western amounts to little more than a guy or gal in a cowboy hat warbling about a truck, all it will take is a couple of minutes of the Carters' raw energy to set the record straight. A.P. Carter was in many ways a Fordian hero, a “song-catcher” who would leave his family for weeks on end to roam the countryside, “collecting” songs that might not otherwise have been preserved were it not for his efforts. Documentarian Beth Harrington focuses on a heritage of music, wisely sidestepping all of the gossip inherent in the subject. One drawback: Mike Olsen’s transitional “Photoanimation” work — particularly the creepy open-casket cut-out animation of family pictures – veers it in the direction of a scrapbooking store. (2014) — Scott Marks
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