Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHL6otOyc0o&feature=youtu.be

This year is the 59th anniversary of a seminal 1959 song-collecting trip around the Southern United States by pre-eminent ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. On the trip with him as his 'secretary' was an unknown English singer called Shirley Collins. They had met in the UK, where Lomax had been avoiding the attention of the McCarthy witch-hunts, and they became lovers. Together they returned to an America on the cusp of the Civil Rights movement and embarked on a road trip where they collected a vital body of music that provides a peerless document of the time. Shirley was to go on to become the most significant English traditional singer of her age, before losing her voice in mysterious circumstances in the 1980s. The film juxtaposes this transatlantic road-trip from the start of her career with the story of her brave attempt (at the age of 80) to rediscover her voice and place in the pantheon of musical greats. The film is both a celebration of the power of tradition and an inspiring story of triumph over adversity and one that explores the enduring ongoing cultural exchange between the US and UK.
UK 2017, 94 mins / Colour + B/W

About the Directors:
Rob Curry and Tim Plester previously co-directed the award-winning 2011 theatrical documentary WAY OF THE MORRIS. The film premiered at SXSW and was selected by the UK Film Focus as one of the “Breakthrough” British films of that year. Their short documentary film HERE WE’M BE TOGETHER, about the apocryphal Norfolk folk tradition of dwyle flonking, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2014.