Moving Midway

Name: Moving Midway
Genre: Documentary
Released: September 12, 2008
Duration: 95 min
Rating: 79

2008

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Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

First Run Features | Release Date: September 12, 2008

Summary: Godfrey Cheshire's richly observed film about his family's Southern plantation - and the colossal feat of moving it to escape urban sprawl - is a thoughtful and witty look at the lingering remnants and still-powerful mythology of plantation culture and the antebellum South. An award-winning film critic turned film maker, Cheshire uses theGodfrey Cheshire's richly observed film about his family's Southern plantation - and the colossal feat of moving it to escape urban sprawl - is a thoughtful and witty look at the lingering remnants and still-powerful mythology of plantation culture and the antebellum South. An award-winning film critic turned film maker, Cheshire uses the relocation of his family's North Carolina plantation house to embark on a surprising and multi-layered journey. While observing the elaborate, arcane preparations for moving a centuries-old house over fields and a rock quarry, unexpected human drama - from both the living and the dead - emerges. And a chance encounter leads Cheshire and his cousins to discover a previously unknown African American branch of the family (who have their own take on Midway and its legacy). Through the use of movies and music, and by turning the camera on himself and his family, Cheshire examines the Southern plantation in American history and culture, and how the racial legacy from the past continues into the present. (First Run Features)… Expand

Director: Godfrey Cheshire

Genre(s): Documentary

Runtime: 95 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Maureen M. Hart

In its 98 minutes, film critic Godfrey Cheshire’s documentary Moving Midway records an amazing architectural feat, and that’s the least of its virtues. Read full review

Peter Rainer

In Moving Midway, Cheshire chronicles not only the history of the move but also of the family members, past and present, who occupied the place, and, most pointedly, the slaves who worked its fields, some of whom turn out to be related. Read full review

A.O. Scott

May not advance any grand new thesis about the South and its history, but it turns an old house into a rich and strange repository of local knowledge. Read full review

Robert Abele

His engaging chronicle of the physical, historical and psychological effect of the undertaking, is also an invitation for a film buff to meditate on the antebellum South's mythic power in stories and film. Read full review

Kyle Smith

The oddly compelling documentary Moving Midway is an engineering tale combined with a family history and a ghost story. Read full review

Roger Ebert

This is a deceptive film. It starts in one direction and discovers a better one. Cheshire is a dry, almost dispassionate narrator, and that is good; preaching about his discoveries would sound wrong. Read full review

Ronnie Scheib

Uniquely Southern documentary has become surprisingly timely this election year. Read full review

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