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The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia (2002)
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Overview
Plot:
The meaning of art itself comes into question in this documentary about Shelby Lee Adams' controversial photos of families in Appalachia. | add synopsisUser Comments:
Appalachia revisited moreCast
(Credited cast) | Shelby Lee Adams | ... | Himself |
 | Walter Cronkite | ... | Himself (voice) (archive footage) |
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Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
75 min | Canada:75 min (Toronto International Film Festival)Country:
CanadaLanguage:
EnglishColor:
ColorFilming Locations:
Kentucky, USAMOVIEmeter: 
30% since last week
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This film looks at the photographer Shelby Lee Adams and his Kentucky holler neighbors. The obvious comparison is to Walker Evans and the pictures he took for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. There, the grinding poverty was clear and unambiguous; barefoot sharecroppers with only a broken-down bed and a couple of chairs that they had to make themselves. Evans was accused of manipulating his images, although how you can make dirt-poor look even poorer is beyond my understanding.
Shelby Adams is charged with stage-managing his scenes of mountain-gorge desperation. It is true that the hog-butchering scene was brought about by Adams's planning, but little else could have been arranged. Certainly the snake-handling is real; you see the man in hospital with his arm swelled up to watermelon size. The two dwarfs, both with mental handicaps, are probably the result of incest, but this theme is treated very gingerly indeed. If you want to meet the people who sat for great photos like Brothers Praying, Hooterville, Kentucky and The Kiss, this is a great opportunity.