In 1969, Bill Richardson and his wife uprooted their lives in New York City to move to Whitesburg, a small, rural town in eastern Kentucky. Richardson combined his filmmaking knowledge with a sizable federal grant to open Appalshop, a nonprofit arts hub for Appalachia’s aspiring filmmakers.

Born a decade after it opened, Richardson’s daughter, Anna, watched the organization evolve from a small group of film students to a beacon of Appalachian culture and history. Her father—who is also an architect—built Appalshop’s headquarters in Whitesburg.

Now a California resident, Anna Richardson White said she never lost her Kentucky twang.

“This accent has started so many conversations with people like, “Where are you from?” Richardson White said. “And I felt like I was always trying to explain

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