Moving mountains. Hand carved / a production of Appalshop ; a film by Herb E. Smith and Elizabeth Barret with Anthony Slone, Robert Cooper.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Smith, Herby, filmmaker.

Barret, Elizabeth, filmmaker.

Appalshop, Inc., publisher, production company.

Series:

Academic Video Online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cornett, Chester.

Artists--Ohio--Cincinnati--Economic conditions.

Artists.

Rocking chairs--Ohio--Cincinnati.

Rocking chairs.

Wood-carving--Ohio--Cincinnati.

Wood-carving.

Genre:

Documentary films.

Feature films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (59 minutes)

Other Title:

Hand carved

Place of Publication:

Whitesburg, KY : Appalshop Inc., 1981.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

Chester Cornett has made chairs for presidents. His work is displayed in museums across the country. In Hand Carved, Chester fells a tree on the site of his family's homeplace near the top of Pine Mountain in Eastern Kentucky and transports it back to his small apartment/workshop in inner-city Cincinnati. Cornett tells the story of his apprenticeship with his grandfather and uncle, and the personal and economic reasons he left the mountains. Intricate camerawork illustrates the process Cornett uses to chop, whittle, and carve the wood into an exquisite, eight-legged, "two-in-one" rocker designed for the film. As when Chester explains to the viewer that "I've traded a chair many-a-time for groceries," Hand Carved reveals the precarious life of an artist struggling to survive in a society accustomed to mass production.

Notes:

Title from title screen (viewed September 22, 2025).

OCLC:

1544907215