The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack

Director: Aiyana Elliott
(2000)

When the filmmaker daughter of cowboy folk music’s greatest rambler, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, set out to document the life and times of her father, Aiyana Elliott found herself not only seeking biographical and historical details but answers to questions still lingering from a childhood largely spent without the presence of her father. The film consists of some amazingly fascinating yarns of life on the road with such larger than life icons as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and is padded heavily with candid concert footage and interviews with the people who knew Jack Elliott the best, earning Elliott the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Achievement at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack is a must for both fans of the music and general American history as well.