Trouble Behind
During World War I, African-Americans worked on the railroad near Corbin, Kentucky. When whites returned from the war, there was conflict. Whites sought their former jobs and positions in the community. In 1919, a race riot occurred. Whites put the African-Americans on railroad cars and ran them out of town. In Trouble Behind, members of the Corbin community speak out on the issue. The filmmakers also interview former members of the Corbin, which at the time of filming had only one black family. Some Corbin residents express confusion as to why African-Americans don't move back. Others openly use racial epithets. Some young adults seem troubled by the racism, past and present. Others don't.
Harlan County U.S.A.
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Comin' Round the Mountain
Al Stewart and Wilbert are magicians doing a stage act when they run into Wilbert's cousin, Dorothy McCoy. They find out that Wilbert's grandfather, Squeeze-box McCoy, had treasure hidden in the hills of Kentucky, which they go to find.
Thundering Hoofs
A young woman returns to Kentucky after several years in boarding school, and discovers that a very valuable horse that is to be entered in the Derby is about to be forfeited due to the machinations of a rival. She determines to ride the horse in the Derby and win the race.
In Country
Samantha Hughes, a teenaged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Samantha becomes obsessed with finding out about her father.
To the Last Man
In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
A well-established tale of a long-running feud between two mountain clans.
Ripe
When their abusive parents are killed in a car crash, twin sisters Rosie and Violet vow to run away to Kentucky in search of a better life. While on the road, the girls meet up with Pete, a drifter working as a grounds keeper on a derelict army base, who takes them in. While Violet falls for him, Rosie becomes increasingly angry and hostile, and the sisters' childhood bond is eventually destroyed forever.
Daniel Boone
In 1775, Daniel Boone settles Kentucky, despite menacing Indians and renegade whites.
One and Not Done
Examines the life and career of John Calipari, one of the most polarizing figures in modern college basketball, weaving his story around that of his 2015–16 Kentucky team.
Daniel Boone: The Promised Land
The wagon train on the way to Kentucky has to lighten the loads to get across the mountains and battle Indians.
Bigfoot In Kentucky
Delving into the existence of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, considered one of the most mysterious creatures on Earth.
We Believe in Dinosaurs
Williamstown, Kentucky, is home to the Ark Encounter – a “life-size” creationist museum filled with all of the creatures that traveled in Noah's Ark, including dinosaurs. With incredible access to the park leading up to its opening, the filmmakers expose the larger system behind the creationist movement, piecing together the many factors that have led to the museum presenting its information as historical fact, and the people who are fighting to set the scientific record straight. Amid a climate of science denial and a well-funded corporate behemoth, three Kentuckians (a local geologist, an ex-creationist, and an atheist activist) try their best to challenge the movement that is taking over their home state. Meanwhile, fervent believers work diligently to create the lifelike animatronics that will be on display in the Ark.
Kentucky Rifle
A man escorts a wagon load of Kentucky rifles through Indian territory and must find a way to get through without losing the rifles to the Indians. Unfortunately the Indians know about it, and give the occupants an ultimatum: either the rifles or their lives.
Our Hospitality
A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
Thunder Mountain
Sam Martin grows up in the Kentucky hills with a preacher as his closest friend and father figure. The young man goes away and gets an education, and when he returns home, he wants to build a school so that others can learn, too.
Kentucky Kernels
The Great Elmer and Company, two out-of-work magicians, help lovelorn Jerry Bronson adopt Spanky Milford, to distract him. When Bronson makes up and elopes, the pair are stuck with the little boy. But Spanky inherits a Kentucky fortune, so they head south to Banesville, where the Milfords and Wakefields are conducting a bitter feud.
Bullitt County
An action/thriller set in 1977 about four friends who reunite for a bachelor party to hunt for buried Prohibition money on Kentucky's Bluegrass Bourbon Trail, only to become ripped apart by greed, corruption, and murder.
Dean's Last Ride
A veteran Taxi driver struggles to find passengers in San Francisco and wages a spiritual war against his new self driving competitor, Waymo.
Black Gold
A Native American man trains a horse for the Kentucky Derby.