Two Trains Runnin’

USA, Feature Documentary, 2016, 82 min

The convergence of idealism, horrific brutality and artistic genius. The New York Times

Nominated for a 2018 Grammy, Two Trains Runnin’ pays tribute to a pioneering generation of musicians and features interviews and performances by Gary Clark Jr., Buddy Guy, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Valerie June, North Mississippi All-Stars and Lucinda Williams. In the 1930s, two giants of the Delta blues, Skip James and Son House, made records that changed America's popular music forever. Then they disappeared. But in 1964, during the folk-song revolution on college campuses, two separate groups of college-age musicians set out for Mississippi├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼├óΓé¼┬¥with recording equipment├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼├óΓé¼┬¥to find them. At the same time, hundreds of other college students were heading there as Freedom Riders. Finally, in June 1964, the groups converged, as ugliness and fury of the resistance to black voting├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼├óΓé¼┬¥the violence, beatings and murders that white authorities unleashed against it├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼├óΓé¼┬¥shocked America. But this convergence turned civil rights into a national cause and spawned the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act. It also launched a resurrection of some of the greatest American music of all time.

Directed by Sam Pollard

Boulder Premiere