STORYTELLER (DVD)

In 1937, a talented string musician named ‘Happy’ Carden was shot and killed at his service station in Moody Bottom. His beleaguered widow then abandoned their two year old child on the porch of his grandparent’s house in Rhodes Cove. Raised there by his grandparents, young Gary Neil Carden was steeped in the old Appalachian ways of his elders, a generation behind his peers, and he absorbed the lore, folklore, superstitions and tall tales of the region. He also lived and breathed the serial stories broadcast into their remote holler to the family’s Silvertone radio. And when he had an opportunity to go to the movies, his Aunt Ruby reported that he “put the movie on like a suit of clothes.” The imaginative boy told his first stories to an audience of leghorns in the chicken house, but his audience slowly grew larger and more attentive over the years, drawn to tales that bring the folklore of the region to life and restore the world of Carden’s childhood in the Carolina mountains. In time Carden became a celebrated teacher, playwright, author, and through it all, above all else—a STORYTELLER.

For a lifetime spent preserving the folklore and traditions of his native region, Gary Carden has earned a host of accolades, including an honorary doctorate from Western Carolina University and the prestigious North Carolina Award for Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor. Today, at age 88, he lives in the home where he was raised, accompanied by his cats and a house full of ghosts and memories. STORYTELLER follows Carden over a quarter of a century as he navigates change and loss, in community, culture and personal life, constantly reevaluating his roots, navigating the present, and negotiating with reality through the power of narrative.

STORYTELLER is a film by by Neal Hutcheson. Carden and Hutcheson worked together previously on the documentaries Mountain Talk (2003), The Outlaw Lewis Redmond (2008), and the Emmy award winning The Last One (2009), and award-winning adaptations of Carden’s plays The Prince of Dark Corners (2007) and Birdell (2018).