The largest appearance of blues in film occurs in documentaries on the history of blues music and blues musicians.  Sam Charters shot what was essentially the first blues documentary, The Blues, in 1962, (MacMillan Films provided larger distribution for the work in 1973). The 1995 documentary And This is Free features significant footage of Chicago's Maxwell Street musicians, captured in 1964 by Mike Shea.  Just as Shea's early film recordings found their way into later documentaries, Pete Seeger's 1958 footage of Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, and J. C. Burris is now available on VHS and DVD.  Performances such as the 1958 American Folk Blues Festival or the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival are also now obtainable on DVD.  Filmmaker Les Blank's The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins (1969) and A Well Spent Life (1971) have become classics of blues documentary technique.  In 1971, David Evans, Bill Ferris, and Judy Peiser teamed to produce Gravel Springs Fife and Drum, which presents the words and music of North Mississippi's patriarchal fife player Othar Turner. [go to page 2 >>]