Tom Davenport

Ashpet: An American Cinderella

Tom Davenport

A re-telling of Cinderella set in the rural south during World War II

Bearskin, or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years

Tom Davenport

Glenn Taylor, Helen Stoltzfus

A soldier can not return home after he leaves the army, and can not find a job. Desperation drives him to make a deal with the Devil, who makes a bet with him. For the next seven years, he will carry a purse of gold that's always full. However, he must wear a bearskin and neither pray nor wash nor cut his hair in all that time. If he survives, he can keep the purse, but if he dies, the Devil gets his soul.

Born for Hard Luck: Peg Leg Sam Jackson

Tom Davenport

Arthur "Peg Leg Sam" Jackson

A portrait of Arthur "Peg Leg Sam" Jackson --black harmonica player, singer, and comedian who made his living "busking" on the street and performing in patent-medicine shows touring southern towns. Footage includes excerpts from one of his last medicine shows, videotaped at a county fair in 1972, and material filmed near his home in South Carolina in 1975. The performance includes harmonica solos, songs, a parody of a chanted sermon, folktales and reminiscences, and three buck dances.

Soldier Jack, or The Man Who Caught Death in a Sack

Tom Davenport

Floyd King

Adapted from an Appalachian Jack Tale set in the late 1940s, this tale follows a World War II veteran named Jack who, in return for an act of kindness, receives two magical gifts: a sack that can catch anything and a jar that can show whether a sick person will recover or die. Jack becomes a national hero when he rescues the president's daughter from a serious illness by capturing Death in his magic sack. However, after many years without Death in the world, Jack realizes that he has upset the natural order and releases Death to save humankind from perpetual old age and misery.

Mutzmag

Tom Davenport

Tom Davenport's realistic adaptation of an old Appalachian story. With nothing more than her plucky spirit and her pocket knife, a mountain girl outwits a witch and an ogre to save herself and her sisters. Part of the PBS series "Fromt he Brothers Grimm." Winner Chicago International Children's Film Festival. Ages 10 and above.

Bristlelip

Tom Davenport

Veanne Cox

A girl acts spoiled and doesn't want to marry any of the suitors that come for her hand. One guy, who she nick-names "Bristlelip" makes a deal with her father for her hand. The next day "Bristlelip" comes disguised as a peddler, and the girl becomes his unwilling bride. He carries her off to his crude cabin, all the while commenting on her questions about properties. The girl proves to be an unfit (at housework) wife at first, trying her hand at cooking, spinning, basketry, and even sales of pottery to no avail.

The Frog King

Tom Davenport

John Michael Higgins

An upper-class, late 19th-century dining room where a wealthy industrialist presides as "king" sets the stage for this version of "The Frog King," the classic tale about a princess's promise to a frog.

The Upperville Show

Tom Davenport, Rebecca Davenport

A short filmed at a horse show.

It Ain't City Music

Tom Davenport

A series of interviews with and performances by the attendees and musicians at the Warrenton, Virgina country music festival in 1972.