INDEPENDENT LENS: RAZING APPALACHIA (TV)
Summary
One in this PBS series that showcases new documentaries and dramas created by independent filmmakers that tell stories of ordinary people who are heroes nonetheless. Angela Bassett introduces this documentary about a struggling Appalachian community, caught between pro- and anti-coal mining factions who face off over the expansion of strip-mining fields in Logan County, West Virginia, in the late 1990s. The first part of the film introduces the people and issues involved in the debate over Arch Coal's efforts to gain a permit allowing the expansion -- the largest ever -- which would require the destruction of the town of Blair, West Virginia, and the displacement of its forty resident families. Various anti-mining residents of Blair, United Mine Workers Association president Cecil Roberts, independent coal contractor Rick Abraham, and Joe Lovett of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment briefly explain their anti- or pro- permit stances.
Jim and Sylvia Weekley, the lone remaining residents of the mined town of Pigeonroost Hollow, talk about the parts of their histories lost to recent strip-mine expansion. Arch Coal, Inc.'s David G. Todd discusses the threat of job losses for miners; University of West Virginia law professor Pat McGinley, Ohio Valley Environment Coalition member Larry Gibson, WV Organizing Project member Patricia Bragg, and Ken Hechler, West Virginia's Secretary of State (1984-2000), discuss the detrimental environmental impact of strip mining in the region. The next part of the program looks at the efforts made at the grassroots level to slow down mountain-top mining and the actions taken by pro-mining factions in response. This portion of the documentary includes footage of the first meeting of the Coal River Mountain Watch and comments from WV Organizing Project member Freda Williams and Ken Hechler; segments of television reports on pro-coal industry rallies at the West Virginia State Capitol; ads run by the mining industry; film of a public relations tour of mining sites by Arch Coal, Inc. president Larry Emerson; and additional commentary from union representative John Harden. The program then looks into the history of coal mining industry in West Virginia, including the Battle of Blair Mountain in August 1921 -- a legacy at the heart of the debate over the Arch Coal permit. This portion of the film incorporates comments from Donna Green, the Weekleys, UMWA local 2935 member Terry Vance, and Joe Lovett as well as archival materials covering the events of 1921.
The final portion of the film is devoted to the outcome of the struggle between anti-mining and pro-mining factions on the matter of Arch Coal's expansion permit. The film covers the October 1998 public hearing by the EPA and the aftermath of the agency's decision to halt mining (briefly mentioning subsequent appeals and decisions at the state and federal levels of the judiciary from 1998-2002). It includes regional and national news reports, and commentary by the EPA's W. Michael McCabe (1995-2001), Blair resident Paul Burgess, the Weekleys, Rick Abraham, David Todd, Larry Emerson and Joe Lovett.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 2003.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: May 20, 2003 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:21
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:78564
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Coal mines and mining - Appalachia - West Virginia
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1999-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Sally Jo Fifer … Executive Producer
- Mary Ann Thyken … Coordinating Producer, Writer
- Sasha Waters … Producer, Director
- Lois Vossen … Producer, Writer
- Charley Randazzo … Director
- Eric Martin … Writer
- Angela Bassett … Host
- Rick Abraham
- Patricia Bragg
- Paul Burgess
- Larry Emerson
- Larry Gibson
- Donna Green
- John Harden
- Ken Hechler
- Joe Lovett
- W. Michael McCabe
- Pat McGinley
- Cecil Roberts
- David G. Todd
- Terry Vance
- Jim Weekley
- Sylvia Weekley
- Freda Williams