Hot Docs 2008

Kentucky-born photographer Shelby Lee Adams has created a famously controversial body of work. Over the past three decades, he has shot undeniably beautiful images of shockingly poor dwellers in the Appalachian Mountains. During that time, Adams has exhibited photographs in galleries and produced books, which have received great acclaim-and, from some quarters, moral disdain. The problem is that Adams's shots are perceived as being pure documentary records of rural backwoods culture-but they're not. Adams stages his scenes, often using theatrical lighting. In one purportedly exploitive example, he brought in a hog so it could be slaughtered by a "hillbilly" family and used as a subject for a photo. Complicating the issue is the fact that Adams's Appalachians willingly consent to work with him. Baichwal's incisive film documents Adams, his critics and the families he shoots. "Without passing judgment, [Baichwal] develops an extraordinary perspective, both moral and aesthetic," writes Brian D. Johnson in Maclean's magazine.