Because I'm Here: A Meditation on Making a Documentary

A work-in-progress discussion with film clips about the documentary portrait of Earl Gilmore, a gay, African-American, devoutly Christian, gospel choir director, former blues musician, coal miner, center-fielder for the Clinchco Giants, carnival hoochie coochie dancer, Ford Fellow, and life-long resident of Clinchco, Virginia, population 350.

The film is also a meditation on the making of a documentary film, the representation of documentary subjects, a filmmaker’s obligation to his subject, and why it has taken so long (since 1982) for Garrison to finish this film. The filmmaker will present clips from the film and discuss this stage of the work.