Deep Ellum Blues

This is a short preview trailer. You can watch the entire film at no charge on the Folkstreams website. Folkstreams is a nonprofit whose mission is to find, preserve, contextualize, and stream documentary films on American folklife.

Watch the entire film at Folkstreams

Deep Ellum is a place -- a part of Dallas, Texas. Deep Ellum, along with its legendary music scene built by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Lead Belly, and Bill Neely, all but disappeared with the construction of Central Expressway in the 1950s. This film is one of three short films in the Living Texas Blues series which explores the 1920s and 1930s night life in Dallas through the music of Bill Neely. For more information, see Alan Govenar, Meeting the Blues: The Rise of the Texas Sound (Da Capo, 1995), and Alan Govenar, The Early Years of Rhythm and Blues (Schiffer Publishing, 2004).

  • Film by: Alan Govenar
  • Produced by: Dallas Museum of Art
  • Cinematographer: Bruce Pacho Lane
  • Sound: Jody Govenar
  • Editor: Bruce Pacho Lane
  • Other Credits: Researched by Alan Govenar; Production assistance by Breea Govenar
  • Original Format: Film: 16mm
  • © 1985, Alan Govenar
  • 10mins, Color