June Carter Cash was her own woman, but often was referred to as the wife of Johnny Cash, or as one of the singing children in the Carter Family band. Though she, and all those close to her, knew she was more than her close ties, it is now time for the rest of us to catch up. We can do so by watching the documentary about the iconoclastic country singer-songwriter.
June is a film by Kristen Vaurio. The filmmaker unearthed interviews from several iconic figures, including Robert Duvall, Jane Seymour, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Kacey Musgraves, Reese Witherspoon and more.
On June Carter Cash’s Legacy
“I feel aggrieved on her behalf,” Vaurio said in an interview with The Guardian. “There are a lot of people who are like, oh no, she couldn’t have written that. This is a hard sell in Nashville but I feel like it’s the most recognisable country song there is in the world. I think because she was a woman, people didn’t want to let her have it.”
She continued, “She came from Poor Valley at the base of Clinch Mountain, Maces Spring, and that place was always a very spiritual home for her. She spent so much of her life on the road, but having that place as home and those songs that she sang, and those Carter family songs, are very much rooted in that place.”
Vaurio added, “She came from – still to this day – a family of remarkable women. I don’t think that there’s another group of women like that – geniuses, business geniuses – and they just did it. Even though it was hard, they made it work… Everybody exists in their time and place and that was the time and place that she was in. She was in Nashville and trying to make it on her own in the 50s. She probably wouldn’t have called herself a feminist but she lived it.”
Check out the official trailer for the film below.
June is not rated. The running time is 1 hour and 38 minutes. You can watch the film on Paramount+.
