West Virginia Filmmakers Guild Presentation
June 12, 2010

I arrived 30 minutes before the session I was attending. I snuck into the back row to listen to the presentor. It turned out to be Mary-Lynn Evans, the filmmaker who made the film “Appalachians” [and "Coal Country" last summer] that was on PBS earlier in the year. I wondered what I got myself into. (more…)

The Charleston Gazette ran a front page story about the exploding number of gas wells being dug in West Virginia because of the Marcellus Shale today. Last night HBO premiered a film called “Gasland” about a new film that explores the issues concerning gas well drilling around the country, getting stories on NPR and elsewhere. Below is my description of the film that I will use to create my 2011 list of “New Films on WV and Appalachia” for Goldenseal magazine next summer. (I did watch a screener of the film last week.)  (more…)

Pare Lorentz, born in Clarksburg, raised in Buckhannon, was the first enviromental filmmaker. His films are still some of the best ever made about the environment, and The Great Depression. His son, Pare Lorentz Jr., whom I knew by phone (unlike his father, whom I had breakfast with in NYC), died this last weekend in Kentucky.

(more…)