In-the-Works

Conversations

Now in its fifth year, DocuClub is proud to continue the In-the-Works session at Full Frame in 2004. In Field of Stone, David Allan Coe is now one of the last remaining country musicians recognized as emerging from the “outlaw movement” with such famous contemporaries as Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and George Jones. He himself is most famous for singing that quintessential hard country song, “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” He is also a tattoo-covered ex-con, arguably one of the hardest of all hard country musicians. Now 64, he continues to tour a hectic schedule. Field of Stone is both an observational and impressionistic portrait of this aging outlaw. Once part of a notorious bike club, Coe reached the height of his own infamy when he released the “underground albums” which shocked as well as thrilled audiences with their overly sexist and racist lyrics. The Guestworker: Since his early twenties, Candelario Gonzales (Don Cande) has traveled to the US to find work, traveling illegally across the border, each time risking arrest and possible death in order to provide for his family. Now 66 years old, Don Cande has made the trip the last 11 years under the legal protection of the US government’s H-2A “guestworker” visa program. Despite the often hard and uncertain conditions they face, Don Cande and his compatriots arise in the film with dignity and depth of character that helps strike down stereotypes about Mexican workers and their lives on both sides of the border. Through their eyes, one gains a deeper understanding of what it means to be a guestworker.

Directors

Shambhavi Kaul, Cynthia Hill, Dr. Charles Thompson

Festival Year

2004