"American Epic" Screening
Stokes Auditorium 550 E. Sale Road, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Directed by Bernard MacMahon and produced by Allison McGourty and Duke Erikson, American Epic tells what Robert Redford has called "America's greatest untold story." Across three episodes, audiences will follow Macmahon, McGourty, Erikson, and audio engineer Nicholad Bergh as they embark on an odyssey to track down the musicians discovered in the 1920s shift to radio.
The way the new medium was taking over the pop music business led record companies across the country to seek out new styles and markets, away from the large cities where they had up until then invested all of their energy. Their collective searches resulted in the discoveries and recordings of sounds integral to our American identity including country singers in the Appalachians, blues guitarists in the Mississippi Delta, Gospel preachers across the South, Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana, Tejano groups from the Texas-Mexico border, Native American drummers in Arizona, and Hawaiian musicians. It was the first time America heard itself.
American Epic pulls together a combination of never-before seen film footage and photographs with modern day recordings of these very same musicians and their families. The movie's makers even went so far as to restore music once recorded and reassembling the technology that created it.
Join Banners at McNeese for a special screening of the third episode of American Epic, featuring Louisiana musicians the Lost Bayou Ramblers, the Americans, and Pokey Lafargue, as well as blues legend Taj Mahal. 3 pm. Free, but seating is limited. banners.org.