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Lost Masterpiece: Karl Brown's Stark Love (2010)
Directed by: Craig Tollis British silent film historian, Kevin Brownlow, on Lost Masterpiece: “This is a fascinating and offbeat aspect of film history which would never have been made were it not for John White.” View the introduction on YouTube. Filmed by Paramount Pictures in 1926 in the North Carolina mountains, Karl Brown's docudrama, Stark Love, has been called one of the most important pieces of Appalachian cinematic history. Shot on location using local people instead of trained actors it was released to great critical acclaim in 1927 but failed to perform at the box office. Much to the distress of film historians and Appalachian scholars, like almost 1,000 silent movies produced by Paramount, the film was recycled for its silver content and the movie was lost. By coincidence, Stark Love was discovered in the Czech National Film Archive in Prague in 1968 and returned to Hollywood to be restored in the 1970s. Since then the movie has only be available for viewing on film at select screenings and has not been released to the public. When publishing several papers on the movie, film historian Dr. John White discovered that many descendents of the people who appeared in Stark Love had never seen the film, and that several did not know a family member had even appeared in a major Hollywood picture. John made it his personal mission to meet as many of the descendents as he could, make sure they had seen the film, and enlisted the help of documentarian Craig Tollis to capture their recollections for future generations. John also discovered compelling evidence that Karl Brown may have been strongly influence by the books of wilderness writer Horace Kephart. Lost Masterpiece traces Karl Brown's journey in making Stark Love, as well as John's in contacting the descendents of the mountain people who appeared in the film, culminating in their gathering for the first time ever for the screening of Stark Love at the 2009 Southern Appalachian International Film Festival in Bristol, Tennessee. Production Notes: Principal photography began in October 2008 as a road trip to Robbinsville, North Carolina and Bryson City, North Carolina. We faced some sound issues for exterior locations close to the infamous Tail of the Dragon motorcycle route on US-129. We managed. It was essential for us to be in the mountains at the same time as the peak riding and visitor season for the same fall colors everyone else was there to see. If you ride, US-129 is a great scenic and "technical" motorcycle experience but be prepared for crowds during certain times of the year. Several more road trips occurred throughout 2009 through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Alabama. We wrapped production in October 2009, after which a preview of Lost Masterpiece was screened at the 2009 Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (SoApIFF) in Bristol, Tennessee following a rare screening of Stark Love itself. Some descendents of the actors and filmmakers who created Stark Love were able to attend the screening and spoke with us about the experience. The screening and their comments now appear in the completed version of Lost Masterpiece. Thanks to Mark Compton and SoApIFF for making this possible and to Scott Hedeen who volunteered his time to video tape the event. The producers wish to thank those family members who for logistical or budgetary reasons were not able to be filmed by our crew and conducted their own interview session. Their time and effort is much appreciated and made an invaluable contribution to this historical record. We also appreciate use of the photographs that have been provided to us by descendents of those involved in making the movie. Lost Masterpiece was edited and finished by Craig Tollis on Final Cut Pro in 1080i High Definition format. John Martin provided the original guitar music for the score. More of John's music can be found on his page at Reverb Nation. Stark Love was added to the National Film Registry in 2009.
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