Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, director of the acclaimed Paul Bowles documentary LET IT COME DOWN, trains her eye on another artist of uncompromising vision in her film THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES. For over 30 years, Shelby Lee Adams has been photographing the impoverished mountain dwellers of his native eastern Kentucky, earning critical acclaim for his stark black-and-white portraits of Appalachian life--from families who live without plumbing or electricity to Pentecostal sects whose members drink strychnine and handle rattlesnakes during religious ceremonies. But Adams' work has also garnered a fair share of controversy: critics charge that his photographs exploit their subjects, perpetuate stereotypes about the rural poor, or are sometimes staged by Adams for greater effect. Baichwal's provocative documentary examines these issues and raises complex moral questions about the very nature of art through interviews with Adams' admirers and detractors, samples of his extraordinary work, and footage of the photographer revisiting some of his most famous subjects.
