Appalshop partnered with Level Forward on Holler.

Appalshop began in the fall of 1969 as a modest community film workshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, aiming to teach local youth 16 mm filmmaking, provide vocational training, and challenge the entrenched image of Eastern Kentucky as impoverished. Founded by Bill Richardson, fresh from Yale, the initiative quickly blossomed: by 1975 it employed 20 full-time staff, drew sizable grant funding, and expanded into photography, literature, theater (notably Roadside Theater), a record label (June Appal Recordings), and Headwaters Television by the decade’s end. oday, operating from Letcher County, it runs a radio station, theater, public art gallery, record label, archive, film institute, reproductive justice and community development programs, among others, while doubling as a leader in regional economic development, sustainable energy, cultural exchanges, youth empowerment, and small-business support—all anchored in its founding mission to document, revitalize, celebrate, and amplify Appalachian voices and creativity.