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Film takes look at how mountaintop removal in West Virginia affects landscape
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Jan 04, 2009
This month, documentary maker Mari-Lynn Evans will finish her latest project, a 90-minute film tentatively called Coal Power.
But while the shooting, editing and overall production will be done, Evans will not be done with the topic or its meaning.
That's not just because she will then spend another year promoting the film, as well as a companion book and CD, and finding a TV home for it.
Evans admits to being haunted by what she saw when coal mining — especially mountaintop removal — ravages a landscape. She struggled to understand why such a process, which also takes out communities in the path of the mining, had to happen in her native West Virginia. And that the process has divided not only communities, but also families; her own brother, who works for a coal company, refused to be interviewed on camera in Evans' film.
The haunting began three years ago, as Evans was finishing another film, the well-regarded The Appalachians.
While making that film, she met Judy Bonds, a West Virginia activist who insisted that Evans had to see what happened in mountaintop removal, a sweeping process for getting at coal efficiently — even if the effect on the land is brutal.
Bonds told Evans that mountaintop removal is ''like strip mining on steroids''; when Evans saw a site, she thought it resembled a barren moonscape.
''I literally fell to my knees crying,'' she said during an interview in her sprawling West Akron home and office. ''I still cry about it today. . . . I thought, how on earth could the government allow these coal companies to literally level 500 mountains and permanently destroy 1,200 miles of streams? How could this possibly be happening? . . . My mission was to do this film.''
Evans had felt the same way about The Appalachians, although Coal Power had some unique perils. The subject is so controversial, Evans said, she received threatening phone calls; a videographer was punched out by a miner. Once, while shooting near a coal-company entrance, Evans and her crew were approached by a man with a gun.
''I mean, we jumped in our van and took off like you couldn't believe,'' she said.
While following the story, she said, ''you are down lonely hollers in complete blackness and there's only one road in and one road out, and it is dangerous. [Activist] Larry Gibson has something like 150 bullet
holes in his house.''
But one challenge was all too familiar to Evans: funding.
Coal Power is being edited from 125 hours of footage and more than 200 interviews, with a budget of $650,000 — very little, when an hour of a TV drama can cost almost five times as much. And even that was not easy to come by, Evans said.
She got her first big check from Adam Lewis, the son of Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis; Evans said he has worked with Appalachian Voices, an environmental group. While not specifying the amount, she said his donation was ''significant. And it was so significant, too, that it allowed me to raise more money.''
Funding also came from the Sierra Club, which Evans said will present screenings of the movie this year. So there's a hint that the program has a pro-environmentalist tilt, a hint that Evans is eager to dispel. While her passion about the impact of moutaintop removal is considerable, she insisted that she wanted to understand the pro-coal position as well.
''I really wanted to have someone explain this to me from a pro-coal position that made sense to me,'' she said. ''I really wanted to understand . . . that economically, environmentally or culturally, this made sense.''
And did she get to that answer? It took her two years to get coal-company executives to talk, she said, since they believe they will always be portrayed as the villains. And when they and pro-coal people did talk, she said, the answer was fairly simple. Of mining, they said, ''This is the law. We're allowed to do this.'' And of people making their living from it, she said the view is, ''I make a lot of money, my friends make a lot of money and my only other option is flipping burgers.''
Still, she said, ''there comes a point when you have to ask, is this right? . . . When you flip on a light switch, you're blowing up a mountain in West Virginia.''
That's the kind of thought that lingers with Evans. ''I can't believe anybody invites me to their parties anymore,'' she said. ''I am the most boring human being on Earth because all I think about, talk about, look at, is coal. It has absolutely consumed me.''
Reminded that at some point this has to end, she said, ''I hope.'' Asked whether she can see a day when she does not wake up thinking about coal, she said: ''No. Because it's still just too close to me.''
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
This month, documentary maker Mari-Lynn Evans will finish her latest project, a 90-minute film tentatively called Coal Power.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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barberton, oh
Posted 09:01 AM, 01/04/2009
I find it very hard to believe that Mari-Lynn does not take advantage of all the hard work those coal miners do to provide the electricity she uses every day. Is solar power in Akron plausable. I do not work in a coal mine but as a miner I am aware of how hard these guys work. Right now I am out of work and it is not fun watching someone trying to put a bunch of people on the streets.
canton, oh
Posted 10:54 AM, 01/04/2009
if mary-lynn wants to do something for the state of west virginia she could help replant the trees after the mines are done at a site.and if she is a native of west virginia she would be glad people there even have a job today.if she wants to do something for west virginia she should seek long term help for the victims of the buffalo creek flood that whiped out a lot of our familys in the 70s.do something helpfull Mary-Lynn not make things worse by fighting mounting top removel and strip mining....
naoma, wv
Posted 11:26 AM, 01/04/2009
dward and jwall have posted the typical comments that come from those that either make a living from coal or just don't understand, or care to understand that some American citizens in WV are paying a heavy price with their mental and physical health so others can have so called "cheap electricity". First off, mountaintop removal is not a job that a REAL coal miner performs. I'm NOT opposed to underground mining and have a great deal of respect for REAL coal miners that go underground. Those that work on these mountain top removal sites however, I don't respect because as far as I'm concerned mountain top removal is an act of terror. I live beneath a mountain top removal operation and my nerves are rattle everyday from the blasting and fear of mudslides and the mountain coming down on top of my family. REAL coal miners don't terrorize. My Dad, Grandfather and Uncles were all REAL coal miners and I'm proud of them. But those that go along with this rape of the land and bullish terror to WV citizens living near this insane and greedy coal extraction practice should be ashamed to have sold their sole to the coal baron and turned their backs on their heritage and community.
akron, oh
Posted 03:11 PM, 01/04/2009
Al gore didn't get elected because the ever so powerfull coal Co's.took him down.racy say's stop the top removals(@@)
Posted 04:20 PM, 01/04/2009
I have seen streams ruined by these mining operations. I am not talking for a little while. I have seen streams running solid white or pure copper colored for 50 years after the mining operation shut down.
canton, oh
Posted 04:58 PM, 01/04/2009
bowebb how can you say i dont understant that some american citizans in west virginia are paying a heavy price on there mental and physcial health? i lost 30 some family members in the buffalo creek flood witch was caused buy a mine poorly building a dam that broke and killed 125 people and left 4000 homeless. im from buffalo creek west virginia and i have family working aboveground and underground mines.. as an american citizan we need the jobs we have. not take them away and leave familys and children to starve....
Rock Creek, WV
Posted 06:34 PM, 01/04/2009
I live there and Bo Webb is right. Strip mining is blasting and poisoning us and our children. Strip mining jobs are terrorist jobs. The strip mining has flooded out many people living downstream -little kids are so scared that they sleep with their shoes on so they can run so jwallswv is either out of touch or don't know he is talking about. We don't need these jobs--these strip jobs blast and poison. Shame on jwalls and dward.
naoma, wv
Posted 05:11 AM, 01/05/2009
so jwall, you seem to think it's ok if a few West Virginians die so some others can have a job?
You lost 30 some family members at Buffalo Creek and still think it's ok? wow!!!! 125 people died at Buffalo Creek. You were related to 1/4th of them? If someone killed 30 of my family members I sure wouldn't be approving of them killing more.
The answer to your job concerns are to create more jobs, green jobs, clean green energy jobs. Coal kills when it is mined and kills again when it is burned. Coal is finite. Coal is carbon. Carbon is filling our atmosphere and causing global warming and climate change. Why would you advocate burning more of the stuff and killing your family and others to do so?
Pound, VA
Posted 03:56 PM, 01/06/2009
Bush is a TOXIC TERRORIST. The Profit machines and Politicans don't care about Appalachia or anywhere else in this world. http://www.wisecountyissues.com
Appalachia can't stand anymore of the new hybrid clean coal technology, jobs and prosperity !
