The Mountain Minor tells the story of a fictional Eastern Kentucky family of musicians who migrated to Cincinnati to find work during the Great Depression, showing how old-time mountain music served as a source of entertainment before the era of phonographs and radio.

The Mountain Minor airs Friday, July 24, at 9/8 pm on KET.

The film was written and directed by Dale Farmer, an old-time musician himself, who cast old-time musicians in the roles rather than trained actors in an effort to portray the characters as authentically as possible.

“I thought it would be easier to teach musicians how to act, than to teach actors how to play mountain music,” Farmer said. “I did not want them to lip-sync or play to pre-recorded tracks, the way musical scenes are usually shot. Every musical performance in the film was shot ‘live,’ rough edges and all. I wanted everything to look real.”

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