Erin Derham

An oral historian and filmmaker, Erin Derham has worked in broadcast and digital media for Levine Museum of the New South, Wing Haven Foundation, and PBS affiliate WTVI. Her latest film, "Buskin' Blues," is her first documentary feature. For "Buskin' Blues," Erin sought to capture the stories and secret code used by the busking subculture of Asheville, North Carolina. Filled with passionate live performances, arresting personal insights, hilarious stories from the street, and tender moments between total strangers, Derham illuminates the culture and personalities that dare to destroy the invisible barriers we set between ourselves and our streets. "Buskin' Blues" is a history you will not read in any book, and a musical you will not hear on any playlist. It is a movie that examines what draws us away from whatever we had to do and into watching someone perform on the street, as well as what draws so many of those talents to a random town in the mountains of Appalachia. "Buskin' Blues" is filmmaker Erin Derham's directorial debut, her love letter to Asheville, North Carolina, and her account of following an ancient artistic practice in the modern age.