Ben Beard

Since Birth of a Nation became the first Hollywood blockbuster in 1915, movies have struggled to reckon with the American South-as both a place and an idea, a reality and a romance, a lived experience and a bitter legacy. Nearly every major American filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter has worked on a film about the South, from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave, from Deliverance to Forrest Gump. In The South Never Plays Itself, author and film...

"Many of American cinema's most defining movies have roots in the South. Be they films that excite (No Country for Old Men), amuse (My Cousin Vinny), or disturb (Deliverance), Southern movies remain some of the most evocative in modern filmmaking. The South Never Plays Itself examines the historical and cultural legacy of the South and the silver screen, a relationship as tangled and inextricable as Spanish moss. From the racist propaganda of The...