Henry Glassie: Field Work

Director Pat Collins’ sublime portrait of the renowned American folklorist and ethnologist, Henry Glassie, who has spent a half century documenting the artistic processes of traditional craftspeople.

This magisterial portrait of the renowned American folklorist and ethnologist Henry Glassie chronicles his long-held passion for learning about people all over the world through the objects they create. Revered Irish documentarian Pat Collins (Silence, Song of Granite) takes us on a mesmerising journey that celebrates the skill and devotion of the artists behind each and every artifact, from the people and folklore of Glassie’s native southern states, to the gilders and painters of Brazil, the ceramic masters and women rug weavers of Turkey, and the storytellers and singers of Ballymenone on the Northern Irish border. Glassie’s subject is folklore but his abiding love for the people who create it resonates throughout the film.