Voices from the American Railroad

Award-winning filmmakers Will and Deni McIntyre will share their experience and take questions about producing the series and working with Rhiannon Giddens and American Railroad artists. They also discuss their work in amplifying Indigenous voices and the often-overlooked stories of the diverse communities who built America's railroads—including the Indigenous peoples whose lands were forever changed by westward expansion.

My Music with Rhiannon Giddens Season 2 is a PBS series featuring the Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens. The season explores the musical traditions of the diverse communities, including Chinese, Japanese, and Native American communities who built the transcontinental railroad, as part of her Silkroad Ensemble's American Railroad project. Each episode features conversations and performances with musicians from these communities.  

This compelling reimagining of Silkroad’s acclaimed American Railroad program features an intimate, powerful ensemble of eight world-class musicians led by internationally renowned pipa master Wu Man. The program weaves a sonic tapestry that honors the often-overlooked contributions of Indigenous and African Americans, along with Chinese, Irish, Japanese, and other immigrant communities who laid the tracks that transformed a nation. Amplifying the voices of those who built the railroads—and those displaced by them—the Silkroad Ensemble reveals a richer, more inclusive portrait of America’s past.  

American Railroad includes thrilling collaborations featuring traditional percussion instruments from India, Japan, and Italy; the tonal interplay of Chinese pipa, guitar, string instruments; and the unforgettable sound of the Chinese suona and European accordion. With breathtaking musicianship and evocative melodies, this Grammy-winning group challenges conventional narratives and offers a new, deeply human perspective on the American experience. 

Will and Deni McIntyre are a filmmaking and photographic team based near Asheville in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina. They have worked in more than eighty countries on six continents, shooting for magazines and corporations as well as TV networks. 

Will and Deni shoot high-definition movie footage using RED cameras. They specialize in producing content for public television. Their Emmy-nominated series David Holt’s State of Music premiered in January 2015 and ran for six seasons, distributed nationally by PBS. Their current series for PBS is My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, hosted by the Pulitzer Prize winning NC native, which began airing in 2023. Season 1 featured Rhiannon’s mentors and fellow women musicians of color; Season 2 centered on Silkroad’s “American Railroad” project; Season 3 was filmed entirely in Ireland and featured masters of Irish traditional music. 

Will and Deni have created numerous award-winning video projects for non-profits and educational institutions, starting with a Telly Award-winning short documentary for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) titled “We All Need Good Teachers.” In 2008, they created another short for NCCAT, “Teaching the Holocaust,” which won three Telly Awards. Their TV spot for the Second Harvest food bank, “You Think It Couldn’t Be You,” won a Telly Award in 2012. Their first long form video was “Saving the Hansen House”, a documentary about a mild-mannered theatre professor who impulsively buys a neglected 18th-century house to save it from being torn down. 

They have taken major assignments from Credit Suisse, Varig Brazilian Airlines, the German Wine Information Bureau, the Mexican Ministry of Tourism, Glaxo SmithKline, Quintiles Transnational Corp., RJR Inc., Lowe’s Companies Inc., Duke University Medical Center, and Ebony, Fortune, Time, and People magazines. They also photograph portraits of writers and recording artists for CD covers, book covers, and websites. 

Their book Three Ranches is the story of how 100,000 acres in Wyoming and Colorado evolved and changed ownership over the last 150 years. The book won a Gold Medal for Regional Non-Fiction from the Independent Publisher Association in 2013. Their book All Over the Map: Travel Photographs and the Stories Behind Them won the Best Photography Book award from the Independent Publisher Association in 2001. 

Will and Deni have produced two large-format books commissioned by universities: Elon Under the Oaks, a pictorial study of Elon University, and Vanderbilt: A University Portrait. They created an illustrated journal for fox hunters called Chronicle of the Chase with novelist Rita Mae Brown, and No Place Like Lowe’s, a history of the national home improvement retailer. 

Will is a graduate of Western Carolina University and has served on the board of trustees of the American Society of Media Photographers. He was a founder of its North Carolina chapter. Will is a member of the Steadicam Operators Association. He plays the upright bass, rides horses, and loves to cook. 

Deni graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest University. Annual reports she wrote for Lowe’s Companies received gold, silver, and bronze awards from Financial World magazine. She is a backyard gardener and amateur stone mason, and she plays guitar and flute. 

To see some of Will and Deni’s favorite pictures and movies, visit their website at www.macfoto.com. For information about their foundation, visit https://www.willanddeni.org/. To find out more about David Holt's State of Music, visit www.pbs.org/show/david-holts-state-music/