Trailer for the documentary short The Outlaw Lewis Redmond.
'Major' Lewis Redmond, the character of history and folklore that inspired the play The Prince of Dark Corners, was the most famous outlaw of his day, outshining contemporaries Jesse James and Billy-the-Kid. In this documentary account of his life and times, folkorists, storytellers, historians and descendants recover the memory of this forgotten renegade, triangulating the real Lewis Redmond between the distortions of hero worship, tabloid fascination, and the savage depictions of the man in Northern newspapers.
Born to a poor farming family in the rugged mountains of Southern Appalachia, Lewis Redmond managed a bootleg network that ranged through three states, fought and eluded the lawmen sent to capture him, and helped poor mountain people pay their taxes and save their family land. The true story of this 'American Robin Hood' grants a privileged view into a turbulent, formative era of American history.