Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story

A documentary portrait of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a string band from Raleigh, North Carolina, and their mentor, fiddler Joe Thompson (1919—2012). The film captures how three African-Americans from the hip-hop generation embraced a 19th-century genre and took it to new heights, winning a Grammy in 2010. The story of the band’s meteoric rise, from busking on the street to playing major festivals, is punctuated and informed by the history of the banjo’s origins in Africa, and the untold story of how blacks and whites collaborated to create the earliest forms of American popular music.

Samples of Recent Projects

Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian

Ohiyesa: The Soul of an Indian

Carolina Chocolate Drops Trio

Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story

Transplant: A Gift For Life by John Whitehead

Transplant: A Gift For Life

Ojibwe parade

First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language

Mississippi River image

Mississippi National River Recreation Area

StorySwap, a documnetary from John Whitehead

StorySwap