THE WINDING STREAM (Beth Harrington). 92 minutes. Opens Friday (April 8). See listing. Rating: NNNN
If you missed it when it played Doc Soup Sundays earlier this year, The Winding Stream returns to the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema for a proper commercial run this week.
Beth Harrington’s documentary looks at the musical dynasty that is the Carter Family, and how its course changed when June Carter – a second-generation performer – married that Johnny Cash guy.
It’s the story of a family hanging together over nearly a century, and of a specific strain of popular music that runs through America like no other. (Roseanne Cash embodies its current iteration, musically looking backward and reaching forward at the same time.)
Harrington fills the movie with famous fans like Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow and John Prine, among others, but the real power of her film is in its archival performances. A handheld home video of an elderly, frail Johnny Cash recording Keep On The Sunny Side with his family is worth a thousand interviews.