Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Carl Gilfillan Collection #20079, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Acquisitions information unknown (Acc. 102546).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Encoded by: Anne Wells, March 2016

Archival processing of the Carl Gilfillan Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American Baptists.
• African Americans -- Religion.
• African Americans--Songs and music.
• Church music.
• South Carolina--History.
• South Carolina--social life and customs.
• Southern States--Religious life and customs.
• Southern States--Songs and music.
• Spirituals (Songs)--South Carolina.

• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025)

Carl Gilfillan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970, earning bachelor's degrees in cultural anthropology and social sciences. In 1971 he completed the short documentary film, The Struggle, which was the result of a five-year study of Cedar Branch, a socially and geographically isolated village in South Carolina's swampland. A year later he founded Media Consultants, Inc, a media production and distribution company located in Cary, N.C. Gilfillan has been the owner and president of the firm since its founding.

The Carl Gilfillan Collection consists of 7 open reel field recordings, 1971, created and compiled by filmmaker and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alum, Carl Gilfillan. The recordings in the collection were used as part of the soundtrack for Gilfillan's 1971 documentary film, The Struggle, which was the result of a five-year study of Cedar Branch, a socially and geographically isolated village in South Carolina's swampland. All of the field recordings in the collection feature African American congregational spirituals recorded at St. Joseph Mission Baptist Church in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. The spirituals are sung in the traditional call-and-response style. Heard between songs are testimonials from the congregation and ecstatic religious experiences.

• Audiotapes (FT-20079/252-256, FT-20079/851-852)
• Field tape notes (Folders 408 and 471 within the Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes Collection #30025)