Folklife of region on display
THE OZARKS DELEGATION Arkansas is being well-represented in Washington, D.C., during the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
The event, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, started June 29 on the National Mall (though unhealthy air quality in the area forced the opening ceremony to be canceled). Programming runs through Tuesday and will then continue from Thursday through July 9. This year’s theme is “The Ozarks: Faces and Facets of a Region” and the festival will feature music, dancing, food, visual arts, crafts and artisans from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Back in March we wrote about musician Pam Simmons Setser, who was 9 years old in 1970 when she traveled with her family and others from Mountain View to Washington to perform at that year’s version of the Folklife Festival. Setser is taking part in this year’s event as well. Other Arkansas participants include members of the musical groups the Ozark Highballers, Sylamore Special and the Brockwell Gospel Music School; herbalist and food writer Susan Belsinger; filmmaker Kholoud Sawaf; and Marshallese artisans including weavers Clara Beasa and Tie Matthew.
There are plenty more Arkansas artists and craftspeople on the schedule.
The festival is presented in collaboration with the National Parks Service, Arkansas Tourism, the University of Arkansas, Experience Fayetteville, the Committee of 100 for the Ozark Folk Center, the Windgate Foundation, Missouri State University and the Missouri Division of Tourism.
TRUE GRIT SETTING? As soon as we saw “The best movie set in each state” clickbait feature last week at avclub.com, we checked the Arkansas entry and found it puzzling.
The choice was Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 version of “True Grit,” which is based, of course, on the novel by Arkansas native Charles Portis and stars Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld and Matt Damon. Great movie, but most of the action happens outside of Arkansas.
In descibing the film, avclub.com writer Matt Schimkowitz says Rooster Cogburn is “at war with the Arkansas wilderness” and is hunting Tom Chaney, the killer of narrator Mattie Ross’ father, “across the Natural State.”
Well, no. While part of the movie is set in Fort Smith, Mattie and Cogburn spend a big chunk of the film in what is now Oklahoma (the movie was shot, by the way, in New Mexico and Texas). Having to chase Chaney into Indian Territory is the whole point behind Mattie teaming with Cogburn in the first place.
There are two “runners up” in the Arkansas entry — “A Face in the Crowd” and “Sling Blade.” Perhaps one of those would have been a better “best” choice. We may have gone with “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”