USA,
1985, 75 min
Shown in 1985
CREDITS
- dir
-
Terry Zwigoff
- cam
-
John Knoop, David Myers
-
COMMENTS
Shown with Minnie the Moocher and Many Many More and Cigarette Blues. Terry Zwigoff, Howard Armstrong and Robert Crumb in person.
Seventy-six-year-old Howard Armstrong is a fiddle and mandolin wizard, a fine cartoonist and the leading exemplar of a forgotten genre of traditional American country music: the Black string band. Extraordinary performance sequences feature Armstrong accompanied by (among others) legendary mandolin ace Yank Rachel. First-time filmmaker Terry Zwigoff lets Armstrong tell his own story, offering a first-hand look at a forgotten corner of American musical history.
—Michael Goodwin
FACTOID #81
Anjelica Huston was the first recipient of the Piper-Heidsieck Award in 1991. When Huston received the prize from the champagne maker, she joked, “Can I drink it?”
