Joan C. Browning, a resident of Greenbrier County, will receive one of the Governor’s Awards for Volunteerism on July 11th in Charleston. Ms. Browning has produced several films with 2005 WV Filmmaker of the Year B.J. Gudmundsson that make up the “Inspiration Series.” Two of the films have been shown as part of the “WV Film Series” at The South Charleston Museum - “He Went About Doing Good” on Rev. Renick and “Standing on Holy Ground” about Rev. Dr. Patricia Jarvis. You can visit her website at -

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~oma00013/.

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 Photo by Jacob Young at 2006 Jescofest

Jesco White was immortalized by Jacob Young’s two films about him, “Dancing Outlaw” and “Dancing Outlaw Goes to Hollywood.” On Friday, July 8th, USA Today, in its state summary for WV, reported that Jesco and his Charleston-based wife have once again split up. Last summer there was a Jescofest at Hinton honoring Jesco’s 50th anniversary, trying to raise money to support him and his family. To read Brad McElhinny’s Charleston Daily Mail story, click here.

World premiere of film version of “Bridge at Remagen” at The Keith-Albee Theater in Huntington with marching bands from Fort Knox.

Ken Hechler will be answering questions on the book and film version of his WWII non-fiction bestseller, “The Bridge at Remagen.” WVSU film prog Dave Brock will be presenting it as part of his course on WWII Cinema. There will be a week of WWII-related events that take place at WVSU in Institute, WV.

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Jesse Johnson, as well as Greg Carroll, are not only political activists in the Mountain Party, they are leading film activists. Carroll has been on the board of the WV International Film Festival for years, helping select films, promote films, and do the physical labor that needs to get done each festival. Johnson also has been on the board, planning events like the tribute to WV filmmaker Clyde Ware.

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Mr. Enoch Hicks of Dayton, Ohio, a retired coal miner, called me about a year ago to tell me that he wanted to promote tourism in WV’s coal fields, and asked me how could he do it. I put him in touch with Dr. Fred Barkey…..and recently, he called to tell me that he has published his book - and made a film  showing trips through the coal fields.

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On the top is a photo of the new Walter Reuther statue in Wheeling. On the bottom  is an imaginery mapping of a stone carving by WV Italian workers found near Cathedral Falls in Kanawha County.

West Virginia is a land of labor history. Most unfortunately, even Barbara Kopple got sidetracked when her film about Arnold Miller turned into “Harlan County, USA.” Besides making a film about Eugene Debs and Mother Jones meeting WV’s own titans of labor, Mother and Bill Blizzard during the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Mine Wars at Eskdale, we need films on WV labor art and the WV labor hall of honor.

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My one living aunt, Evelyn Fesenmaier Wallace, finally wrote up the family tale that my grandfather Hugo told me, and her, and probably a lot of other people. It was a tale of racial injustice set in Morton, a small town in Minnesota - “And Justice for None,” written with Greta Bishop

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 Ross Ballard, owner of MountainWhispers.com, the world’s smallest - and best - producer of audio books notified me on Sunday night that The History Channel would be showing a segment of a show on the 50 states at 8 am today. It was at the end of the show on California and several other states, so I taped it and watched it during lunch today.

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