Writer and director Rachel Liebling felt compelled to make "High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music" because she said she felt it was her responsibility to "bring the music to a new audience."
The documentary film follows the evolution of bluegrass music from its roots in Scottish folk music to the influences of jazz and rock and roll.
At the end of the 95-minute movie, Liebling presents the music as a living and thriving genre.
Liebling said in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was inspired to make this documentary after seeing Bill Monroe, known as "the father of bluegrass," in the Lone Star Caf e in New York City in 1986.
Liebling completed the film in 1992 and it was quickly lauded by critics -- winning five major awards on the film festival circuit.
Before she made the film, Liebling said she had been listening to bluegrass for about a year, but was not an avid fan.
Then, a friend took her to the Bill Monroe concert that ended up changing six years of her life, and maybe her career.
"It is hard to connect to a band you don't know," she said. "Monroe started to play a song with incredible gospel quality. It got me on an emotional level."
After that night, Liebling began working on her project.
She found little documentation of the history of bluegrass, aside from a few books on the artists themselves.
"It is so rare to have the founders [of a genre] alive," she said. "I thought it would be special to have a film that tells their history."
"They were able to give their first-hand experiences, not a dry narrative," she said.
Liebling spent the month following the Monroe concert in her office and in the public library tracking down every article she could find on bluegrass.
"I had a one-month deadline for a grant proposal," she said. "I completely immersed myself in my research."
"I wanted to make this film," Liebling continued, "because people of my generation grew up with the stereotype of the Beverly Hillbillies."
Liebling said she found this stereotype was not true.
"I wanted to get beyond the stereotype and show the music's heartfelt, evocative quality," she said.
Liebling said she found Monroe to be an interesting character.
"He had a real patriarchal quality ," she said. "I found him rather intimidating."
"He's very introverted," she continued. "A very private person. You get a feel for his connection to his music."
Inspired by Monroe's drive and sense of dignity for his music, Liebling said she hoped to find the same kind of devotion in making her film.
"It was awe-inspiring to see the devotion he has," she said. "He has been touring on the road for sixty years. I wanted to have that same focus."
Liebling is no stranger to film making.
Her father is a photographer and taught film studies at Hampshire College and she attended art school at Cooper Union in New York in 1981.
Liebling did not plan to enter film studies. "I wanted to be a painter or sculptor," she confessed. "I got into film my last year and worked in film production after college."
She later started graduate school at Columbia University.
It was during this time that she first saw Monroe at the Lone Star Caf e .
Liebling said she worked on the film for two years before receiving full funding.
When she received the funding necessary to make "High Lonesome," Liebling left school and devoted her life to the film.
While she was working on the film, though, she stayed in school and eventually received her master's degree.
"High Lonesome" is Liebling's first feature-length film.
"Making a documentary is one of the hardest things you could ever do," she said.
Now that her first film is a critical success, Liebling said she has now turned her thoughts to her second and third projects.
"I am currently working on another music film on the origin of country rock and a dramatic feature," she said.
Liebling said working on a dramatic feature is a completely different experience than making a documentary.
"The writing is hard, but you have free reign over what you are doing," she said.
Liebling said while she enjoys this freedom, it takes much more effort and money to get a dramatic project off the ground.
"It's a big change," she said.
But, Liebling does not seem like one to shy away from a challenge, as "High Lonesome" attests to. After six years in the making, the bluegrass documentary successfully illustrates the colorful history of the music.
"High Lonesome" will be shown tonight in Loews Auditorium at The Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts.
