About me: What is the WORK series? The WORK series seeks to create an ongoing document of the American worker. Taking inspiration from Studs Terkel and Frederick Wiseman, the WORK films are entertaining and enlightening, empowering and amusing, spectacular and mundane. YOU CAN PURCHASE WORK SERIES FILMS BY CLICKING HERE!
WORK 1: Sheriff Sheriff Ronald E. Hewett oversees the rural Southern community of Brunswick County, North Carolina. Heading up what used to be a backwards, back-woods department, Hewett strives to maintain order and civility in a region fraught with murder, robbery, and the occasional theft of ceramic lawn ornaments. To accomplish this impossible task, Hewett uses the only tools at his disposal — God, guns, and the hundreds of blood relatives that populate his jurisdiction.
At once brutal, bizarre and funny, Sheriff employs the techniques of Frederick Wiseman’s pure cinéma vérité: no interviews, no music, no voice-overs. The result is an unexpected, intimate portrait of a complex man trying to do good in a bad world. DVD AVAILABLE NOW
WORK 2: Musician ..
Among musicians, Vandermark's work ethic is almost mythic. The Chicago reed player has released over 100 albums with nearly 40 ensembles, spends over eight months per year on the road, and lives every other waking moment composing, arranging, performing — and trying to discipline his two hyperactive canines. Though Vandermark was the recipient of a 1999 MacArthur genius grant, he still spends most of his life in smoky clubs and low-budget recording studios, hoping people will plunk down hard-earned cash to hear his wholly non-commercial music.
Following the artful cinéma vérité style of the internationally acclaimed Sheriff, Musician forgoes all interviews and voice-overs. It is a fly-on-the-wall time capsule that expertly captures every subtle sound and texture of this most American of art forms. DVD AVAILABLE NOW
UPCOMING WORK:
PROFESSOR University of Iowa religion professor Jay Holstein gets the WORK treatment.
PREACHER A WORK film about Bishop William Nowell, a pentecostal preacher in Virginia.
What makes WORK movies different from most modern documentaries? Using a timeless cinéma vérité aesthetic, independent filmmaker Daniel Kraus captures the sights, sounds, and textures of different American jobs, without the accompaniment of interviews, musical score, or even a story. Each chapter reveals the surprising, engaging, even redemptive routines of hard-working men and women across all 50 States.
Why WORK? Today documentary cameras are everywhere. But strangely, no one is capturing how we spend the majority of our lives, year after year, day after day, hour after hour – in other words, the record of how we worked. Although each film is humble in its approach, seen as a whole the WORK series is epic in scope, creating what will become an essential historical document of modern American life.
Who I'd like to meet: Do YOU know a hard worker who might make a good subject for a future documentary? Let us know!
Hello WORK Series, Thank you for adding me as a friend. I enjoyed watching the sample from your film, MUSICIAN. A very accurate study of the creative process. Have you been keeping up with Sheriff Hewett? You may need to do a sequel. If I can contribute my music to an up-coming project, just let me know. Peace - James
