Ed Wiley and wife Deb – photos by Ken Abbott
According to the press release for “On Coal River,” the filmmakers spent six years making their new 81 minute film that premiered at the AFI Silver Docs in Washington. I have seen their earlier masterpiece “Boom,” about the reality of finding a place to live in the San Francisco Bay area, and I think that their six year effort was well spent.
Marsh Fork Elementary School showing mining within yards
As non-native filmmmakers, they really learned about the realities of living in the Appalachian mountains in the age of mountaintop removal mining, both from the corporate side as well as the fighters against MTR, especially Ed Wiley. After watching about 30 films on the subject, including the Pare Lorentz Award winner “Burning the Future- Coal in America” and Mari-Lynn Evans’ “Coal Country,” I have to rank this film with those two award-winners. Wiley, Bo Webb, Judy Bonds and others are presented as real people, not just symbols of the current fight to save the Appalachian mountains.
Bo Webb at his home with computer
The current debacle in the Gulf of Mexico and the realities of natural gas drilling as shown in “Gasland” are two other events that parallel the forty year battle against strip mining. The energy needs of our current culture is literally destroying our planet around us, like US troops destroyed the jungle in Viet Nam in Agent Orange. The world is ending, slowly, right before our eyes, and anyone who has sympathy for the victims of the Gulf oil disaster should watch this film, knowing that the destruction of Appalachia is as real as the destruction of fishing in the Gulf.
The film has some updates at the end, remarking that the recently deceased Senator Byrd did change his 100 % support for the coal industry, and that a new Marsh Fork Elementary would be built. It was great that Senator Byrd finally supported the PEOPLE of West Virginia after his long tenure in office, and super that a San Francisco-based foundation, etc., including Massey Energy will donate the millions necessary to move the endangered school.
Ken Hechler was interviewed by the foundation that donated the millions to build the new elementary school just a few days before they announced their decision to help out. Ken was arrested at the protest at Marsh Fork in June 2009, with all chargest latter dropped.
I know that OVEC, Coal River Mountain Watch, and others will show this excellent film all over the region, country, and world. Congrats to all of the people involved in making this film including Barbara Kopple who advised, and Jeff Biggers who has a credit in the film.
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