Greetings!
Please join us in making the new documentary, A Portrait of the Ozarks, a reality.
A Portrait of the Ozarks is a feature-length documentary project that explores traditionalism in Ozarks life. Using Shannon County as the focus of the project, our goal is to use the power of storytelling to explore how traditionalism is evident in the Ozarks today. Preserved by descendants of the early settlers, but also adopted by the newer residents wishing to get back to the land, traditionalism shapes much of the culture of the rural Ozarks.
This documentary is a follow-up to the very popular two-part production released in 1981. Led by Bob Moore (producer), Bob Flanders (MSU faculty emeritus), Lynn Morrow (Ozarks historian), this documentary, also titled A Portrait of the Ozarks, is still popular today and can be viewed online.
The funds from this campaign will join earlier donations from individuals and organizations and allow us to reach our preproduction goal of $20,000. With that support the documentary team can move forward on this exciting new project. One of the highest priorities is to interview people involved with the original documentary. Some voices have already been lost in the forty years since the first documentary. We cannot delay in reaching out to people who can still share their stories.
This new project is a joint venture between the Missouri State University Libraries, Missouri State University's Department of Media, Journalism and Film, and nonprofit documentary film studio Carbon Trace Productions.
Links to video, related Facebook pages, and media coverage are available on the project website. We hope you will visit the page on a regular basis. More content will be added as we move forward.
For more information, contact Anne Baker, head of special collections, Missouri State University.
Donations can also be made by check. Please indicate Ozark Documentary in the check’s note field and send your contribution to:
MSU Foundation
Kenneth E. Meyer Alumni Center
300 South Jefferson, Suite 100
Springfield, MO 65806
Thank you for your interest in A Portrait of the Ozarks!
Please contact Anne Baker with any questions: AnneBaker@missouristate.edu or 417-836-5428.
A transcript of this video is available for download here.
*In addition, MSU alumni who make a qualifying gift of $50 or more receive a V.I.B.card - Very Important Bear.
Visit MSU Alumni Association for additional information how to become engaged with the association and what events are coming to your area.
With your support we were able to reach (and exceed!) our campaign goal. Thank you for helping with the development of A Portrait of the Ozarks. We will reach out periodically to tell you how things are going. You can also join the project's Facebook page to follow our progress.
And I leave you with one more image. This was taken during a preliminary visit to Shannon County last summer. It makes me smile. I hope you like it, too. Thank you again.
We'd like to thank the donors who have helped us toward our goal! The generosity and support is greatly appreciated.
On this Giving Tuesday people around the world have come together to celebrate generosity and make an impact. We have a goal to raise $4,000 to finish the first phase of developing the new documentary, A Portrait of the Ozarks. With earlier support and the Giving Tuesday gifts, current donations put us 3/4 of the way toward that goal!
Today we'd like to share photos from one trip to Shannon County, where we secured nearly ten oral histories that would otherwise be lost to the world. Imagine what we could do with our full budget!
Thank you again for helping us move forward on this exciting new project. If you know anyone who might be interested in A Portrait of the Ozarks, please take a moment to share a link to our project page.
Now for the photos, showing the production crew and some of the nice people they met!
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