Stranger with a Camera (2000)

In 1967 Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor came with a crew to eastern Kentucky to make a film showing people from all walks of life in the United States. They finished the day by filming coal miners and their families in rental houses. As the filmmakers were leaving, Hobart Ison, the owner of the property, drove up and fired three shots, killing Hugh O'Connor. Elizabeth Barrett, from Kentucky herself, explores why this happened by trying to understand the people and culture of eastern Kentucky.

Date of release
2000-07-11
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 1m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Elizabeth Barret

Casting

Interesting facts

Stranger with a Camera is a 2000 documentary film by director Elizabeth Barret, investigating the circumstances surrounding the 1967 death of filmmaker Hugh O'Connor. Barret was born and raised in the region, and the film explores questions about public image and the individual's lack of power to define oneself within the American media landscape.

Background

Scottish Canadian documentary filmmaker O'Connor had been hired to direct a film about the "American Dream" titled US. In addition to highlighting many of the prospering areas in America, O'Connor chose to document Letcher County in eastern Kentucky. Letcher County is in Appalachia, a 2,000,000-square-mile (5,200,000 km2) region that had become a metaphor for all that was wrong with the "American Dream".

Reporters, film crews, and television journalists had already been entrenched in Letcher County long before O'Connor arrived. While many of the county's residents were hopeful that attention would bring change, others were angered and felt exploited by the media's portrayal of their community. Hobart Ison, a local man who rented several properties to Appalachian miners, was one such disgruntled resident.

Barret uses her background as both a filmmaker and a member of the community to reevaluate the incident that occurred in 1967. Barret films testimonies of both O'Connor's film crew and family, along with people in Jeremiah, that talk about their struggle with the media in general during Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. Stranger with a Camera reflects the issues between social action vs.

Barret films interviews that discuss the emotions during the War on Poverty, in the less fortunate neighborhoods, while also talking about the emotions of the community after the murder happened. The film helps the audience understand the motives and intentions of the Appalachian people, as well as those of the media and specifically O'Connor's film crew.

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