Neal Hutcheson


Neal Hutcheson is an American filmmaker, photographer, and author. He has received three regional Emmy Awards for documentaries on regional culture, language, and identity. He has produced 17 television documentaries on topics such as Appalachian culture, heritage fisheries on the North Carolina Outer Banks, Cherokee language preservation efforts, African American vernacular speech, and climate change. Hutcheson’s most visible work has featured Popcorn Sutton, a moonshiner from Western North Carolina. The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, a book of photos, interviews and essays by Hutcheson, was released in 2021 and received a National Indie Excellence Award and the Outstanding Book—Independent Spirit Award from The Independent Publisher Book Awards, the largest unaffiliated book contest in the world, and was the grand prize winner of the 30th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Hutcheson works as a producer for the Language & Life Project at North Carolina State University and is a contributing producer to independent production companies Empty Bottle Pictures and Sucker Punch Pictures.

Selected filmography

  • The Prison Sutras
  • Jornada del Muerto
  • Indian by Birth—The Lumbee Dialect
  • Mountain Talk
  • Voices of North Carolina
  • The Queen Family—Appalachian Tradition and Back Porch Music
  • The Prince of Dark Corners
  • The Carolina Brogue
  • The Outlaw Lewis Redmond
  • The Last One—Moonshine in Appalachia
  • Core.Sounders—Living from the Sea
  • Popcorn Sutton—A Hell of a Life
  • First Language—The Race to Save Cherokee
  • Talking Black in America
  • Signing Black in America
  • Land and Water Revisited / Revisitando Tierra y Agua
  • Talking Black in America—Roots
  • Storyteller
  • Talking Black in America—Performance Traditions
  • Talking Black in America—Social Justice
  • A Century After Nanook

    Author

  • “.”
  • “Gary Carden: Folklorist, Playwright, and Storyteller.”
  • “Inclemented that Way.”
  • “Negotiating Language Presentation: Linguists, Communities, and Producers.”
  • by Gary Carden

  • Honors

  • Artist’s Fellowship, North Carolina Arts Council, 2005
  • The North Carolina Film Award, 2008 Carolina Film and Video Festival
  • Emmy, Cultural Documentary, 2009, Southeast region
  • Brown-Hudson Folklore Award, North Carolina Folklore Society, 2011
  • Emmy Nomination, Cultural Documentary, 2015 Midsouth region
  • Best Public Service Film, 2015 American Indian Film Festival
  • Best Regional Documentary, 2015 Native American Film Festival of the Southeast
  • Best Documentary, 2015 Red Rock Film Festival
  • Emmy, Cultural Documentary, 2016, Midsouth region
  • Emmy, Cultural Documentary, 2020, Midsouth region
  • Emmy Nomination, Cultural Documentary, 2021, National Capital Chesapeake Bay region
  • 2022 Outstanding Book — Independent Spirit Award, Independent Publisher Book Awards
  • 2022 National Indie Excellence Award, 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
  • Grand Prize Winner, 30th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, 2022.
  • Emmy Nomination, Historical Documentary, 2023, Southeast region