American epic screening at SEAC, 4 May 2017

Thanks to the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre (SEAC) in Naul, Co. Dublin, for this announcement:

As part of this year’s Séamus Ennis commemorations, we invite you to an exclusive preview screening of American epic: the Big Bang.

At the height of the Roaring Twenties, music scouts armed with cutting-edge recording technology set out across America to capture the breadth of American music and discover the artists that would shape our world. The recordings they made of all the ethnic groups of America democratised the nation and gave a voice to everyone. From the hills of Appalachia and the streets of Memphis, from the sanctified shout of the gospel church, to the coal mines of West Virginia and the cotton fields of Mississippi, music provided relief from tough lives and hard times. New rhythms were born in the echoes of stomping feet, the bite of pickaxes, and the ambling gait of tired mules. For the first time, a woman picking cotton in Mississippi, a coal miner in Virginia, or a tobacco farmer in Tennessee could have their thoughts and feelings heard on records played in living rooms across the country. It was the first time America heard itself.

As told by music pioneers, their families and eyewitnesses, American epic travels back in time to the 'Big Bang' of modern popular music.

American epic (110 minutes) is directed by Bernard MacMahon and presented by T-Bone Burnett, Jack White, and Robert Redford, who is also the narrator and has called it 'America’s greatest untold story'.

It will be shown at SEAC on Thursday 4 May. Doors open at 8.00 p.m. and the film starts at 8.30. Admission is free to SEAC Friends and Members; concessions and guests of SEAC Friends/Members pay €4 in advance, €6 at the door; non-members pay €5 in advance, €7 at the door. In all cases, advance booking is essential. Online booking facilities, as well as a video preview and trailer, are at the event website.