"Stranger with a Camera"

“Stranger with a Camera,” produced by Elizabeth Barrett, is a documentary that focuses on the “inside” and “outside” of this story. There were two main men that she chose to document in her video, one who was an insider to the poverty that was taking place in Appalachia, and one man who was an outsider. Hugh O’Connor was a very successful filmmaker who traveled all over the world to do documentaries. This guy was fearless. He would travel anywhere and everywhere to get a story. He went to a lot of third world countries because he thought it was important that people become aware of all of the hardships that take place around the world. O’Connor was asked to go to Appalachia and document some of the things he saw there because so many people were benefitting from all of the mining that was taking place there, but weren’t aware of all of the suffering that certain people of Appalachia were going through. So, Hugh O’Connor was the “outsider” of this documentary. There was another man named Hobart Ison who was a local in the Appalachian town. Ison was very respected among his peers and the people of his town. One thing about him was that he didn’t want anyone one his property without his permission. He wasn’t all about the public eye being able to see photographs and things like that of the way they lived. He believed that it was personal and he didn’t want to be judged by other people around the world because pictures can be portrayed in a negative manner. He didn’t want to be looked down upon. He was embarrassed. Hobart Ison was the “insider.”

The day that Hugh O’Connor and his crew stepped foot on Ison’s property, was not a good day. O’Connor and his crew walked out and started setting up their equipment when Hobart walked outside with his gun. He started shooting and right away all of the men started to run back to their car. Right as O’Connor turned around to say that they were leaving, Ison shot and killed him. It was the day after his son’s 10^th birthday, a very sad day for many people.

This was a very disputed event that took place. Some people of Kentucky liked the fact that their issues were being recognized, and some of the people didn’t think it was other peoples business. In my opinion, it was necessary for O’Connor to be out there and letting the world know that what brought disparity to some was necessary for others (like the Kentucky coal miners). Some of the coal miners would work 6 days a week, 12 hours a shift, and 16 dollars per week. The media can and did bring out powerful and conflicting ideas. A major question that was emphasized was, could filmmakers show poverty without shaming the people of the film? The photographer’s only intentions were only to show what decades of abuse to the land and abuse to the people could do. They only thought that people should be aware of what was going on. On the other hand, the insiders believed that they people were making fun of their values, their family, and their way of life.