Enjoy free music documentary screenings at the Harris Theater as part of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival!

THE BLUES SOCIETY screens June 1st, 4th, 7th, and 9th. All screenings start at 5:30PM.

See the film and meet the director! Film Director Dr. Augusta Palmer will join the June 9th screening.

About the film:

A new documentary about a forgotten festival. The Blues Society (2024) is a re-evaluation of the 1960s seen through the lens of the Memphis Country Blues Festival (1966-1969). It’s the story of Blues masters like Furry Lewis and Robert Wilkins, who had attained fame in the 1920s but were living in obscurity by the 1960s. It’s also the story of a group of white artists from the North and the South who created a celebration of African American music in a highly segregated city.

In her film, Dr. Augusta Palmer follows the festival from its start in 1966 as an impromptu happening, through a period of cross-pollinization with New York’s East Village scene, and up to the 1969 Festival, which mushroomed into a 3-day event and garnered substantial print and television coverage – including an appearance on Steve Allen’s national PBS show, Sounds of Summer. What is the legacy of the Memphis Country Blues Festival, and who do the blues belong to in 2020?