smith, ada's father, then just 18, was a founding member of appalshop. nd he began here in 1952 about when i was born, ae worked here until '73. 20, 21 years athis particular cation. >> i graduated from whitesburg high school in 1970. there were 170 of us graduated. by the end of the summer, less than 50 of us were here, with no hopes of ever returning. it's difficult. generations of people, thousands >> brown: trained at appalshop and armed with cameras, smith and others got to a new kind of work. >> it was a way to be a partf the solution and to kind of understand the place that we were a part of. >> brown: they produced scores of films, documenting in frank detail the region thalled home.e >> i lik say, it is, we make films about the things we e ke here and wke films about the things that are challenging. >> then, wwant to make films that hold out people like ralph stanley, people who have drawn frre the wealth of the cultu of the region and ma a living from it. >> brown: and appalshop expanded well beyond filmmaking. ♪ ♪ its roadside theater, capture