with a camera

Christina Canton

In the 60s the poverty in America was discovered; the central focus of such poverty was in Kentucky due to the corporations stripping the miners of their resources. Corporations came in and the town became dependent of them for jobs, when they left they devastated the land and left many without resources. It became the area televisions and magazines came to report. People were coming from as far as Canada and from BBC. Volunteers, reporters and politicians swarmed the area to report on the downside of what was once the American Dream and to crusade for the "war on poverty". Along with the many international film crews came Hugh O'Connor in 1967. While documenting the tragedies of this area Hugh O'Connor was shot dead on his last tour in Lecher County by Hobart Ison. O'Connor was on the land of Hobart Ison who was believed in his county and loved his land very much. Everyone that knew him respected him an old friend quotes ”that he would do anything for them but that was his land and he didn't want you on it." Hobart thought that O'Connor like the rest of the reporters who planned on taking pictures of his land to exploit what was going on and show his home in a negative light. Ison felt the need to protect his home, if not much it was still his home and he was proud of it. O'Connor didn't realize what was going on in the community as it was a foreign culture even if they lived in the same country there were still different traditions and values that the Appalachian people upheld. A man from Kentucky quotes "it was strictly a case of misunderstanding the old man thought they were making fun of them, but us hillbillies we don’t bother nobody." Hugh was shot because of miscommunication and misunderstanding, Ison had no former encounters with the technology and cameras other than what the news reporters were doing "your giving a bad image to Kentucky you should hide our poverty." A woman in the film quoted "harsh view of a cameras lens can be very stark." Indeed it was quite stark the view being taken of Kentucky, but parts of the story were left out, there wasn’t documentation of the other side of town where people ate food and went to prom and homecoming with new clothes. Elizabeth Barret in her film "stranger with a camera" is trying to document the preface of why Hobart Ison shot Hugh O'Connor or in her words "what brought these two men face to face." She wants to portray why this happened especially since this is her home, and she two is a filmmaker, she feels some sort of "responsibility."