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- An inside look at the lives of women who fry chicken, make pizzas, and flip burgers at four fast food restaurants in eastern Kentucky. Documents the low wage, no benefits jobs in America's service economy.
- A look at the Buffalo Creek disaster, which occurred when a coal-waste dam collapsed. Includes interviews with survivors, mining officials, and union representatives, along with footage of the flood itself.
- For Nixon's first public appearance since resigning the presidency, Richard Nixon chose the small mountain community of Leslie County, Kentucky.
- Short subject documentary by Julien Nitzberg about the legendary "psychobilly" musician and infamous wild man Hasil Adkins. Filming takes place in Adkins' own yard, his shack, and at various concerts. Adkins is notable for helping create an entirely new form of rock/rockabilly/country fusion, which he plays entirely by himself (with a guitar and drums simultaneously).
- A look at the reaction and aftermath of the murder of a documentary filmmaker in rural Kentucky in 1967.
- A short film documenting the independent truckers hauling cola in Kentucky
- Filmed over an 8-year period in the mountains of east Tennessee, interior Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Morristown: in the air and sun is rooted in the authentic expression of workers who speak about their lives, work, disappointments, and hope. These conversations are combined with scenes in factories, fields, union halls, Mexican stores, city parks, and employment agencies. The documentary travels to the U.S.-Mexican border (El Paso - Juarez) to create deeper understanding of factory flight out of Morristown, and to interior Mexico to look at the forces that cause immigration. Morristown ends with a stunning union victory at a large poultry processing plant in Morristown, Tennessee.
- Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006) is a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of this American civil rights leader. Braden was hailed as a white southerner who was eloquent and prophetic by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail. Ostracized as a red, she fought for an inclusive movement community and mentored three generations of social justice activists.
- Long Journey Home explores the ethnic diversity of the Appalachian region, the economic forces causing people to migrate into and out of the area.
- The Electricity Fairy is a documentary that examines America's national addiction to fossil fuels through the lens of electricity. The setting for this story is Wise County, Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. This region exports both coal and electricity, and the rugged mountain landscape provides an intimate view of national energy issues. Coalfields that began to be developed a century ago are nearing the end of their productivity, demonstrating the finite nature of fossil fuels. Remaining coal seams are increasingly difficult to mine, requiring radical techniques, including the removal of entire mountain tops, to access narrow seams of coal. Air and water pollution from coal mines and the power plants they supply spreads beyond the region and contributes significantly to global warming. Yet the economy of Wise County, like the economy of our nation, remains inexorably linked to coal and fossil fuels. During the fall of 2006, Dominion Power, a utility that describes itself as "one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy," proposed construction of a new coal-fired power plant near St. Paul, Virginia. Local politicians project that the plant will produce more revenue than all of Wise County combined. Opponents say the plant will release dangerous amounts of mercury, sulfur, and carbon dioxide. The debate over the proposed Virginia City power plant can be seen as a microcosm of the national energy debate. Dominion and the plant's supporters project that electricity demand in Virginia will increase by 40% in the next 20 years, and that this plant will help meet that need. Coal is currently the nation's most abundant source of electricity. However, increased concern about global warming has lead scientists, environmental groups, and some politicians to call for a ban on new coal plant construction. Wise County is firmly in the crosshairs of the national debate over the future of coal. After a series of heated public hearings, the Virginia Air Board approved the air permit required for Dominion to begin construction of the power plant. Still, citizens are working to oppose the plant and create a sustainable local economy.
- Shortly after midnight on October 11, 2000, a coal sludge pond in Martin County, Kentucky, broke through an underground mine, propelling 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River into the Big Sandy. The Martin County sludge spill killed all aquatic life along 30 miles of river, damaged municipal water systems, and caused millions of dollars in property damage. Appalshop filmmaker Robert Salyer follows the government agencies and community members through their clean up efforts and their attempts to understand the causes of a disaster 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Filmed over four years, the documentary chronicles the aftermath of the disaster, the Mine Safety and Health Administration whistle blower case of Jack Spadaro, and the looming threat of coal sludge ponds throughout the Appalachian mountains.
- A behind-the-tents look at a small, traveling, circus eking out a living in the mountains of eastern Kentucky in an age of more popular conventional entertainments. Interviews with and observations of concessionaires and performers working two or three different jobs, the local boys helping to put up the tents, and the commentary of owner Pat Guthrie and leading performer, "Screwy Louie," the clown. For some young performers this is part of paying their dues; for some older performers, it is a place to perform when the more prestigious venues are no longer available; for others, it is a way to keep working between other gigs.
- Ethel Caffie-Austin, a daughter of the coalfields, is West Virginia\'s "First Lady of Gospel Music." This program features Ethel performing a range of spirituals, hymns and contemporary gospel numbers that represent the rich cultural heritage of African American song and worship. Ethel\'s enthusiasm and belief in the redemptive power of faith are apparent as she is seen teaching gospel to a youth group, ministering to inmates at a state prison, and leading the choir at the Black Sacred Music Festival in Institute, WV. Oral history, archival material, and interviews are combined with performance footage to tell a powerful story of a personal freedom and triumph through faith, wisdom, and the support of a caring community.
- The Appalachian Group to Save the Land and People used every means possible, from legal petitions to guns and dynamite, to protect their land from strip mining.
- A biography of singer Hazel Dickens.
- Teacher/Photographer Wendy Ewald taught photography to children in four schools in a coal mining region in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The children made powerful photographs of family and rural life, from the inside. At the same time, they made photographs of what could not be seen--their dreams, desires, fears, and wishes. Ewald went on to work with kids and photography all over the world, and to receive a MacArthur "Genius Grant" for her work.
- Hitchhiking home from the movies at age 9, going for a joy ride with an uncle at age 14, or giving a ride home to the woman of his dreams at 23 are three events that change Wilgus Collier and those around him. Starting from the 1950's up to a tie-dyed 1969, this movie presents a humorous and poignant perspective on the significant moments of daily life.
- Shelter traces the remarkable evolution of domestic abuse shelters, and gives voice to five women seeking protection in a rural West Virginia shelter.
- The story of a young boy trying to decide if he wishes to work in the coal mines like everyone else in his town or leave for the big city.
- Created with silent 16mm footage filmed by a coal camp doctor in the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky (c. 1940s/50s), and accompanied by a live, original music score.
- Mine War on Blackberry Creek reports on the long and bitter United Mine Workers of America strike in 1984 against A.T. Massey, America's fourth largest coal company with corporate ties to apartheid South Africa.
- On Our Own Land chronicles the citizens' fight to have the broad-form deed declared unconstitutional in Kentucky. The story unfolds through the voices of local people as the viewer meets a family determined not to move their father's grave for strip miners, sees the rubble of a strip job "reclaimed" to the letter of the law, and watches as citizens protest strip mine abuses and push the state legislature for reform.
- This documentary follows the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) strike against the Pittston Coal Company and explores the strike's social, cultural, and economic impact on coalfield communities.
- Using funny, often poignant examples, Strangers and Kin shows the development and effect of stereotypes as technological change collides with tradition in the Southern mountains.
- Lord and Father documents the conflicting viewpoints of father and son over profitability and morality in the operation of a Kentucky tobacco farm.
- Strip Mining: Energy, Environment and Economics looks at the history of this controversial mining method, the citizens' movement organized to stop it, and the battle to regulate strip mining.
- The Carter family first came into international fame in the 1920s and '30s through the records and radio shows of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and sister-in-law Maybelle, who spread the music of the southern mountains around the world.
- A film version of Roadside Theater's highly acclaimed play, Red Fox/Second Hangin' is the story of M.B. "Doc" Taylor, called "the Red Fox."
- Craftsman Chester Cornett carves a rocking chair from a felled tree.
- For over 50 years, Ralph Stanley's banjo playing, haunting tenor voice and tradition-inspired repertoire have epitomized old time bluegrass music. This documentary explores Stanley's musical roots in the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, the early days of The Stanley Brothers, and Ralph's decision to continue on after the untimely death of brother Carter.
- Letters from Wallens Ridge prison poured into the WMMT radio station, describing human rights violations and racial tension between staff and inmates. This documentary investigated the prison and its impact on prisoners and staff alike.
- In Kentucky, basketball is a cultural obsession. The enthusiasm of Kentucky fans permeates every community in the state. Communities draw a sense of pride and identity from successful high school teams, and people support these teams by the thousands, especially in the rural, Appalachian mountain region of the state. In the towns of Whitesburg, Jenkins, and Hazard, girls teams dominate the basketball spotlight. Of special interest amidst the debate over the value of Title IX support for women's athletics, Girls' Hoops explores the history of girls' high school basketball in Kentucky -- from its first heyday in the 1920s, followed by a 42-year ban on statewide competition, to its rebirth in the 1970s and development into the fiercely competitive, popular sport it has become today. Filmed over the course of a basketball season, the program features exhausting practices, intense games, rousing half-time talks, championship performances and enthusiastic fans from small coal mining communities where a winning girls team is the talk of the town. Girls' Hoops includes up-close interviews with today's players and coaches, comments from a 94-year old player from a 1920s championship team, and interviews and game footage of the woman who broke the gender barrier in the mid-'70s.