MORE ABOUT GRITS

MORE ABOUT GRITS GRITS is alive and well in the culture of the New South. But in spite of what chefs without any roots (or knowledge and respect for them) are doing to corrupt them in the "new cuisine"of many New South upscale restaurants, let's remember that this is our ancestral "root-food" and it has roots in the agrarian South. Grits is as much a part of the ethos of the South as skeeters, gnats, and tree-frogs singing courtin' songs on a full-moon summer's night. .. Having sampled the "New South" versions of grits-associated recipes, I would agree with an old uncle who said, these foods isn't good enough to associate themselves in this way to old fashioned grits." However you serve them up, however, grits remains a mythic and loveable icon when you "go South" in the food world. And when you go South with grits you will find yourself in the realm of the "peculiar"...which is where what makes the South the South is found.	This webpage... will explore the far reaches of grits. Far reaches like recipes from the World Grits Festival held in St. George, SC... my wife, Barbara's, own Hilton Head Country Shrimp and Grits recipe...and recipes, stories, anecdotes and and interesting links to other sites. But this month I want to focus on the 30th Anniversary Release of the digitally remastered and restored version of IT'S GRITS! The original 16mm B&W footage had deteriorated badly to the point where something had to be	done in order to preserve it. My colleague, and the person who has the credit of "Grits Grip" in the film - Jay Williams - was chief curator at the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in 2001, and when he learned of the rapidly deteriorating original. Jay re- commended that we apply to the National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation program for a grant to save the film. We received the grant, and with the expertise of CINE-lab in Atlanta the film was restored to pristine quality.
IT'S GRITS! 30th ANNIVERSARY RELEASE This NEW RELEASE of the classic documentary on the South's favorite foodway contains new bonus footage at the end shot especially for the film's 30th anniversary. In it, Stan recalls the day he began the film, which he thought would be a 10 to 15 minute 16mm "short" - but as it turned out the film took four years from start to release in 2008. Stan decides to hit the streets one last time to see if GRITS is still alive and well and deeply imbedded in 21st century Southern culture. Remarkably, the footage gathered in parking lots along Woodruff road in Greenville over a period of one hour that afternoon - shot in the same hand-held spontaneous interview style that marks all of Stan's films since his first award winner - The American Super 8 Revolution shot back in 1971 - not only confirmed that GRITS is alive and well in the vernacular culture, but the takes are once again unexpected, entertaining, and each a "one-of-a-kind" ... always an aspect of IT'S GRITS! that has kept viewers waiting to see where the camera leads next. This 30th Anniversary version of IT's GRITS! differs from the recently digitally restored and remastered release in one respect - there is no authored commentary by the filmmaker on audio track 2 as is the case for purchasers of the originally restored version... but there is 10 minutes of bonus footage with commentaries by guest commentators. *So now there are TWO versions of IT's GRITS!* : IT's GRITS! - the digitally restored and remastered "Authored" version (my commentary along with Jay Williams on track 2)... and IT's GRITS! - the Special 30th Anniversary Edition** , digitally restored andremastered, with personal bonus footage shot exactly 30 years after the release of the film in 1978 and added at the end.	A NOTE ABOUT STAN'S ORIGINATION OF THE FIRST PERSON HAND-HELD "INITIATING CAMERA" SHOOTING STYLE: Stan adopted a style of docu- mentary filmmaking that has fit into an idiom of film called "vox populi" - it spontaneously extracts the story buried in the subject in the "first person" voice of the film- maker interacting with a person in the folk culture at the distance of personal conversation - about arm's length. He utilizes a wide angle lens (9.5mm) with a zoom (to 57mm) in capturing the conversation. He establisheds composition quickly in his approach to this position and then maintains eye contact with the subject. This, then, takes the subject's conscious focus off of the camera and onto the eye-contact and interaction with the filmmaker as a person, and not a man behind the camera. This enables the subject to respond naturally in their full array of persona to the unfolding	conversation with Stan, who maintains eye-contact while the camera outfitted with the wide angle lens sits casually on his shoulder. The method of extracting the story known as "vox populi" - in the voice of the people - lends a credibility to the film that feels unplanned and unmanipulated by script, rather by the direction of questioning by the filmmaker as the converstion unfolds. This allows for what Stan calls "chance connections". You never know what someone is going to say, and you never know who's coming next in these films - you wander with the filmmaker in a first person encounter as he encounters the people being "converationalized" and are with the filmmaker in real time as he enables you to experience virtually the unraveling of the story as Stan pursues it. This has come to be a distinguishing mark of Stan's filmmaking.

GRITS is alive and well in the culture of the New South. But in spite of what chefs without any roots (or knowledge and respect for them) are doing to corrupt them in the "new cuisine"of many New South upscale restaurants, let's remember that this is our ancestral "root-food" and it has roots in the agrarian South. Grits is as much a part of the ethos of the South as skeeters, gnats, and tree-frogs singing courtin' songs on a full-moon summer's night. .. Having sampled the "New South" versions of grits-associated recipes, I would agree with an old uncle who said, these foods isn't good enough to associate themselves in this way to old fashioned grits." However you serve them up, however, grits remains a mythic and loveable icon when you "go South" in the food world. And when you go South with grits you will find yourself in the realm of the "peculiar"...which is where what makes the South the South is found.

This webpage...

will explore the far reaches of grits. Far reaches like recipes from the World Grits Festival held in St. George, SC... my wife, Barbara's, own Hilton Head Country Shrimp and Grits recipe...and recipes, stories, anecdotes and and interesting links to other sites.

But this month I want to focus on the 30th Anniversary Release of the digitally remastered and restored version of IT'S GRITS! The original 16mm B&W footage had deteriorated badly to the point where something had to be

done in order to preserve it.

My colleague, and the person who has the credit of "Grits Grip" in the film - Jay Williams - was chief curator at the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in 2001, and when he learned of the rapidly deteriorating original. Jay re-

commended that we apply to the National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation program for a grant to save the film. We received the grant, and with the expertise of CINE-lab in Atlanta the film was restored to pristine quality.

IT'S GRITS! 30th ANNIVERSARY RELEASE

This NEW RELEASE of the classic documentary on the South's favorite foodway contains new bonus footage at the end shot especially for the film's 30th anniversary. In it, Stan recalls the day he began the film, which he thought would be a 10 to 15 minute 16mm "short" - but as it turned out the film took four years from start to release in 2008. Stan decides to hit the streets one last time to see if GRITS is still alive and well and deeply imbedded in 21st century Southern culture. Remarkably, the footage gathered in parking lots along Woodruff road in Greenville over a period of one hour that afternoon - shot in the same hand-held spontaneous interview style that marks all of Stan's films since his first award winner - The American Super 8 Revolution shot back in 1971 - not only confirmed that GRITS is alive and well in the vernacular culture, but the takes are once again unexpected, entertaining, and each a "one-of-a-kind" ... always an aspect of IT'S GRITS! that has kept viewers waiting to see where the camera leads next.

This 30th Anniversary version of IT's GRITS! differs from the recently digitally restored and remastered release in one respect - there is no authored commentary by the filmmaker on audio track 2 as is the case for purchasers of the originally restored version... but there is 10 minutes of bonus footage with commentaries by guest commentators.

So now there are TWO versions of IT's GRITS! :

IT's GRITS! - the digitally restored and remastered "Authored" version (my commentary along with Jay Williams on track 2)... and IT's GRITS! - the Special 30th Anniversary Edition , digitally restored andremastered, with personal bonus footage shot exactly 30 years after the release of the film in 1978 and added at the end.

A NOTE ABOUT STAN'S ORIGINATION OF THE FIRST PERSON HAND-HELD "INITIATING CAMERA" SHOOTING STYLE:

Stan adopted a style of docu-

mentary filmmaking that has fit into an idiom of film called "vox populi" - it spontaneously extracts the story buried in the subject in the "first person" voice of the film- maker interacting with a person in the folk culture at the distance of personal conversation - about arm's length. He utilizes a wide angle lens (9.5mm) with a zoom (to 57mm) in capturing the conversation. He establisheds composition quickly in his approach to this position and then maintains eye contact with the subject. This, then, takes the subject's conscious focus off of the camera and onto the eye-contact and interaction with the filmmaker as a person, and not a man behind the camera. This enables the subject to respond naturally in their full array of persona to the unfolding

conversation with Stan, who maintains eye-contact while the camera outfitted with the wide angle lens sits casually on his shoulder. The method of extracting the story known as "vox populi" - in the voice of the people - lends a credibility to the film that feels unplanned and unmanipulated by script, rather by the direction of questioning by the filmmaker as the converstion unfolds. This allows for what Stan calls "chance connections". You never know what someone is going to say, and you never know who's coming next in these films - you wander with the filmmaker in a first person encounter as he encounters the people being "converationalized" and are with the filmmaker in real time as he enables you to experience virtually the unraveling of the story as Stan pursues it. This has come to be a distinguishing mark of Stan's filmmaking.