Films look at conjoined twins, country music star

 Filmmakers Josh Gibson and Shambhavi Kaul featured their award-winning documentary films and a short question-answer session last Wednesday in the 900 Room. Each work followed. 

Josh Gibson and Shambhavi Kaul, both instructors of the Accademia dell'Arte Summer Study Abroad Program in Tuscany, Italy, co-run a production company, Hardlight Limited, in Durham, NC.  

It was a surprising accident when Gibson, who hails from Davidson, N.C., got the idea to create a documentary about the lives of two Siamese twins. 

"I didn't know a lot about the Siamese twins Chang and Eng at the time; but as I did more research, I started to learn more about their life in North Carolina. I became more fascinated, started collecting information and began the process of making this film," said Gibson during an interview with Independent Weekly.

Audience members enjoyed gourmet cookies and popcorn as the night's first presentation, Gibson's "The Siamese Connection," was shown.

Gibson's film made its world premiere as part of the New Docs program during 2008's Full Frame Documentary Festival. Despite the challenges that Gibson faced during productions, the film employed a variety of cinematic techniques and storytelling styles. The hardest aspect of creating this documentary for Gibson involved presenting historically accurate information using a limited number of historical records.  

Cheng and Eng Bunker, who were labeled by the New York Times as "the most curious natural curiosity," were Siamese twins who resided in Mt. Airy, N.C. from 1839 to 1879. 

They spent their lives connected by less than an inch of tendon. In this film Gibson highlights the lives of these two Siamese twins after they left P.T. Barnum's circus. Both Chang and Eng's great-granddaughters were also interviewed during the making of the documentary.  

Following a brief question and answer session, Kaul introduced her documentary, "Field of Stone," an hour-long presentation that described the life of country music star David Allan Coe.  

Kaul noted the difficulty involved in depicting an accurate description of David Allan Coe in an interview with Independent Weekly. 

"When I started making this film, the biggest realization was that I was trying to make an intimate portrait of a very complex person," said Kaul. Insisting that the inclination to label the true outsider of the outlaw country movement as a racist or misogynist simply doesn't work.

"But, on some level, this was going to be a film about not knowing, a film about not getting the answers. I still don't know what he is," she said. 

Anyone who is familiar with David Allan Coe's career knows that it has been a checkered one. A tattoo-covered ex-felon who is known to kick-off a live concert by riding on-stage on a Harley and screaming obscenities, Coe has collaborated and recorded with stars such as Willie Nelson and Tammy Wynette. 

Kaul's cinematic presentation of Coe followed him on tours and shed light on his personal life. The film also offered a critical look at Coe's on-stage personage and the blue-collars fans who support his racist, rebellious behavior.