SEARCHING FOR THE WRONG EYED JESUS (2005)

Cast

Plot

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is a thought-provoking road trip through the American South - a world of churches, prisons, coalmines, truck-stops, juke joints, swamps and mountains. Along the way we encounter various musicians, including: The Handsome Family, Johnny Dowd, 16 Horsepower and David Johansen, old time banjo player Lee Sexton, Rockabilly and Mountain Gospel churches, and novelist Harry Crews. All tell grisly stories down a dirt track. The film is a collage of stories and testimonies, almost invariably of sudden death, sin or redemption; Heaven or Hell, but virtually all with a haunting beauty. Alternative country singer Jim White reflects upon what exactly it is about this baffling place that inspires musicians and writers, whilst at the same time working through his own preoccupations, or, as he puts it, 'trying to find the gold tooth in God's crooked smile'.