A backwoods artist sees treasure where you see trash — and he's not wrong.
Les Blank brings us the life and work of self-taught, visual artist Butch Anthony, who hails from the small town of Seale in Southeastern Alabama. Butch is a rare individual with a unique ability to see the potential in objects that others take for granted. He is considered one of the top naïve artists in Alabama, and, as his artwork is shown in museums around the country, he is becoming a national treasure. Blank’s camera follows Butch to various folk art festivals around the South, visiting the friends and artists who inspired him to create art. Blank also observes Butch’s life in Alabama’s rural landscape. From ‘coon hunting to “calling up” alligators and digging up fossils, Butch Anthony shows us a South not known to many outsiders.
Direction
Les Blank's patient, loving gaze never mocks its subject
Production
Intimate access to a genuinely singular American voice
Director
Les Blank
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Les Blank spent over a decade filming this, capturing Butch's evolution from local curiosity to collected artist.
Butch's 'Museo di Butch' represents a distinctly Southern tradition of self-made museums, from Howard Finster's Paradise Garden to the Watts Towers.
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