"The Library That Dolly Built" - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina is a tight knit community of the remaining members of the Cherokee tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian. One of the tribes’ cultural traditions still practiced to this day is the game of stickball. In the year 2000, nearly 100 women: mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins and friends, took the field to play and exercise the matriarchal spirit that the Cherokee were known for. This film tells the story of these women, how and why they played
In March of 2020, the trailer for The Library That Dolly Built premiered on the Today Show. The film was scheduled to premiere in more than 330 theaters across the country in April. Unfortunately, the pandemic cancelled those plan. We pivoted to an online premiered in December of 2020 and paired the premiere with an online fundraising campaign. The premiere was viewed by more than 1 million people and raised more than $250,000 for the Imagination Library.
The film was produced and directed by Land Grant Films director and University of Tennessee professor Nick Geidner and edited by UT video specialist Clinton Elmore. The rest of the crew was comprised of UT students, ranging from freshman to graduate students. The film is currently available on Amazon Prime, Apple Video, and Google Play. It is also available for free on Kanopy via many local libraries. We hope to do select in-person screenings after the pandemic.
"The Library That Dolly Built" - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library