The public is invited to watch 15 hours of raw video that will take viewers back 20 years to experience the stories and see the land of North Shore residents who had their property seized by the government in the 1940s in order to create Lake Fontana.

The films will be shown 2 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 7, and Sunday, Aug. 8, at the Swain County Center for the Arts located on the Swain County High School campus in Bryson City.

The film was shot twenty years ago by an award-winning Associated Press reporter who spent an entire summer with a CBS news crew shooting video while visiting cemeteries in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He explored the religious and cultural tradition of cemetery decoration and interviewed people who watched the government take their land then failed to fulfill its promise of building a road to their ancestral cemeteries. Eight two-hour DVDs will be for sale.

This event is hosted by the Fontana Historical Association.

Contact Linda Hogue at 828.488.9488 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..