Appalachia is mourning the loss of filmmaker Elizabeth Barret. She passed away earlier this week at her home. She was 74. Barret grew up in Hazard and, after graduating from the University of Kentucky, worked with Appalshop in Whitesburg for decades, creating documentary films.
Barret is known for her documentary “Stranger with a Camera,” which looks at the 1967 shooting death of Canadian filmmaker Hugh O’Connor in Letcher County.
Mimi Pickering is another filmmaker at Appalshop and a long-time friend of Barret. She said Barret is responsible for something vitally important to the group's mission.
“She also went on to establish the Appalshop Archive, which now holds millions of feet of film, audio recordings, and photographs. A lot of that is content created by Appalshop, but then she also looked everywhere for other collections that people might want to contribute.”
Pickering said Barret leaves behind a lasting legacy in Appalachia.
“She was just really an amazing person, and a really kind person. She always was reaching out to help anyone in need, and the number of people who've written and talked about her as a role model, as a mentor, particularly as a woman filmmaker.”
She earned many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and recognition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Barret's husband and children are also filmmakers and continue to work in the region.
Elizabeth Barret's funeral is scheduled for 2PM on Saturday at the Letcher Funeral Home.
