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'Touched With Fire' Update

Remember back a year and a half ago when we talked about an upcoming documentary about the Highwoods String Band? At the time, the film was slated to be released in the spring of 2013. However, here we are in the summer of 2014 and still no movie.

This is not to disparage the filmmakers in any way. As a reminder, "Touched With Fire: The Highwoods String Band Story" is being produced by Horse Archer Productions, a two-person, self-funded company that relies on fundraising to complete its projects. This will be the third film by the company that focuses on old-time music, joining "Why Old Time?" and "The Henry Reed Legacy," which are still available for $20 each.

As one of the people who pre-ordered the Highwoods documentary, I was curious what was going on with the project. And having possibly led some of you to invest in the film, it seemed like my duty to provide an update.

According to the company's website whyoldtime.com, the company was trying to locate some more footage of the band in action during its heyday. Here's what producer/director Chris Valluzzo wrote in a statement dated June 24:
"I just wanted provide you all an update on the Highwoods String Band and Green Grass Clogger videos. The primary holdup was that we could not find very much video WITH audio of the band during the time on the scene. We spent much of 2013-14 on dead-end chases, but we were able to get some. We called off the search and have hired an editor who [began] work a couple weeks ago. Since we were nearly $20,000 short on our fundraising goal, funds have had to come out of our own pockets (we are a two-person company with full-time day jobs), and that also held up the project. Thanks for your patience and interest. We have heard from many people that they'd rather see the film done right than done fast so we have taken that to heart. We hope to have the Highwoods documentary done by fall with Green Grass soon to follow."
You can view a trailer for the documentary here.

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