Dyanna Taylor is an accomplished filmmaker with five Emmys. It was an honor to have her on our campus to screen this film, which was a labor of love about her late grandmother, photographer Dorothea Lange.”Kristen Holmes, Evelyn Burrow Museum administrator
HANCEVILLE – On Thursday, Feb. 18 the Evelyn Burrow Museum at Wallace State Community College presented the movie “Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning” as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. Afterwards, the film’s director, Dyanna Taylor, talked to the audience and answered questions about the film and her work as a filmmaker.
“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning” is a documentary film on the life, loves and work of the great 20th-century photographer Dorothea Lange, whose work is most often identified with images of the Great Depression. Her drive created some of the most influential images of America. Directed by her granddaughter, the documentary gave the audience access to never-before-seen footage, photographs and journals. Combining Taylor’s memories and personal understanding allowed the viewers a better understanding of the woman whose influential photography "revealed America to America."
"We had a wonderful turnout for tonight’s film with a great deal of audience interaction in the question and answer session following,” said Kristen Holmes, Evelyn Burrow Museum administrator. “This is exactly the reason we do these events. Dyanna Taylor is an accomplished filmmaker with five Emmys. It was an honor to have her on our campus to screen this film, which was a labor of love about her late grandmother, photographer Dorothea Lange.”
Taylor is a five-time Emmy award winning cinematographer and director of photography. Her work has also earned her a Peabody Award as well as the honored Muse Lifetime Achievement Award. Taylor was recently the second unit director of photography for the Disney feature “McFarland,” and is currently the director of photography for “Who Will Write Our History.”
“The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of South Arts,” Gail Crutchfield, Wallace State communications & marketing coordinator explained. “Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. South Arts, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit regional arts organization building on the South's unique heritage and enhancing the public value of the arts. Their work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective, through an annual portfolio of activities designed to address the role of the arts in impacting the issues important to our region, and linking the South with the nation and the world through the arts.”
“American Made Movie,” the next free movie on the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, will be screened on March 10 at 6 p.m. at the Evelyn Burrow Museum. The film looks back on the glory days of manufacturing in the United States, when there was a more balanced relationship between the goods produced and consumed, and illustrates how technology and globalization have changed the competitive landscape for companies doing business in America and overseas.
Great things are happening in Hanceville, especially at the Evelyn Burrow Museum at Wallace State Community College. The Museum is open Tuesday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit http://www.burrowmuseum.org/ or call 256-352-8457.
To view a selection of Lange’s photographs, visit www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dorothea-lange-photos.
