American Epic

Did You Know?

• The first electrical sound recording system from 1925 was so mysterious that even by the late 1930s it was considered mythical and had not been seen in almost 80 years before the film.
• Engineer Nicholas Bergh, who restored the recording system, said his mentors told him the system had 'basically disappeared off the face of the earth' within ten years of its creation.
• The restored recording machine would go on to put sound on talking pictures.

Documentary series

The documentary film series focuses on the first recordings of roots music in the United States during the 1920s and their cultural, social, and technological impact. Directed and co-written by Bernard MacMahon, it tells its story through twelve ethnically and musically diverse musicians who auditioned for and participated in these pioneering recording sessions: The Carter Family, the Memphis Jug Band, Elder J.E. Burch, The Williamson Brothers, Dick Justice, Charley Patton, The Hopi Indian Chanters, Joseph Kekuku, Lydia Mendoza, the Breaux Family, Mississippi John Hurt, and Blind Willie Johnson.

The film resulted from ten years of intensive field research and proposed that America was democratized through the invention of electrical sound recording and the open auditions held by record labels across North America in the late 1920s. It contained many previously untold stories, rare archival footage, and advanced audio restorations of 1920s and 1930s recordings. MacMahon required that all interviewees had personally known the subjects, and interviews were conducted on location where the musicians had lived, accompanied by panoramic tracking shots.

At their first meeting, Robert Redford called it "America's greatest untold story." The series received several awards, including the Foxtel Audience Award at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival and the Discovery Award at the 2016 Calgary International Film Festival, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. It was also nominated for Best Use of Footage in a History Feature and Best Use of Footage in a Music Production at the 2018 Focal International Awards. PBS aired the three episodes on May 16, 23, and 30, 2017.

The American Epic Sessions

The American Epic Sessions is a documentary film in which an engineer restores the long-lost first electrical sound recording system from 1925, and twenty contemporary artists attempt to record songs on it for the first time in 80 years. Directed and co-written by Bernard MacMahon, it stars Nas, Alabama Shakes, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Jack White, Taj Mahal, Ana Gabriel, Pokey LaFarge, Beck, Ashley Monroe, and Steve Martin. The film employed a diverse line-up of performers to represent the breadth of cultures first given a national platform through this invention, and explored how recordings made on it in the 1920s influenced contemporary music.

The restoration involved a decade of work piecing together spare parts from across the globe. Engineer Nicholas Bergh, who reassembled the machine, noted that even by the late 1930s the system was considered mythical and had disappeared. The recreation of a live 1920s-style recording session examined what makes a great recorded performance. The film won the Discovery Award and the Audience Award at the Calgary International Film Festival, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, and Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty were nominated as Breakthrough Talents by the British Academy Film Awards. It also won a Grammy Award for the Alabama Shakes performance of "Killer Diller Blues." PBS aired it on June 6, 2017.

Educational program

In September 2017, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools announced a nine-month preschool to high school educational program based on the American Epic films, beginning October 6, 2017. The school, founded by John Dewey in 1896, has over 2,015 students. Lab Board Chair David Kistenbroker stated the program was designed to bring practicing artists to campus to work directly with students. Director Bernard MacMahon and producer Allison McGourty served as Artists-in-Residence.