Ducktown Basin Documentary premieres Sunday
“It’s Home”: Memories of the Ducktown Basin documentary will premiere Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Copper Basin High School gym. Admission is free to view the 58 minute documentary featuring old movies, photos and interviews of area residents. The documentary is a project of Old Town Productions.
Debbie Moore of Old Town Productions said, “The documentary focuses on the lifestyle of the families and people living in a very different setting. Living in a small mining town with no grass or trees created some differences but the human spirit and activities were the same as in any other city in America. The familiar red barren hills of the basin will be seen in numerous photographs and home movie clips in the documentary.”
Eighteen Ducktown Basin residents were interviewed in the making of the documentary. “The stories they tell are of their lives growing up in the Basin,” said Ms. Moore. “The hardest part was trimming down the hours of interviews to fit into our goal to keep the project around one hour.”
All of the interview footage will be donated to the Ducktown Basin Museum to help preserve the history of the area. Local residents that will appear in the documentary are Mary Louise Landrum, Richard Jabaley, Richard Wagner, Barbara Dilbeck, Barbara Holder, Peggy Kilpatrick, Keith Dilbeck, Alden Dilbeck, Dawna Standridge, Joyce Allen, Jimmy Helton, Barbara Proctor, Jimmy Proctor, Sarah Verner, Stan Helton, Steve Helton, Ron Singleton and Robert Brown.
Old Town Productions released documentaries in 2013 and 2014. “Caney Creek: Going Home” was about a small work village on the Ocoee River that was there to support Ocoee Power House #2 and the flume line. The village was there until early 1940s when TVA took control after a United States Supreme Court decision against the original owner Tennessee Electric Power Company.
The second documentary, “It’s a Dirt Track Life” explored early dirt track racing from Dawsonville, Ga. to Gatlinburg, Tn. The documentary included interviews from numerous racers from the early years of racing and vintage movie clips and photos of racers and racetracks.
Both of these documentaries won an “Award of Distinction” for outstanding preservation of history from the East Tennessee Historical Society at their annual awards banquet in 2013 and 2014.
Ron and Debbie Moore host a weekly radio show on WOOP FM 99.9 called Old Town Cleveland about the people, places and things that shaped East Tennessee’s history.