38m; South Africa
Director: Rehad Desi
Synopsis: Coal miners in South Africa. What are the conditions of miners in South Africa from Zimbabwe? How do these miners explain AIDS and how do they try to cope with this devastating health care crisis? This film looks at the AIDS crisis from the lives of Zimbabwe miners who must work in South Africa to help their families. After leaving the mines with AIDS and returning home they must try to educate their wives and their families that their lives have forever changed.
25m; France
Synopsis: This is one of the first documentaries ever made that show the lives of coal miners and their families. This film is a social documentary describing the fate of some 15,000 miners in the Borinage, who in 1932 staged a strike in protest against the announcement by Belgian mine-owners of a 5% cut in wages. The film is still extremely moving and portrays men who were often treated worse than animals.
124m; U.S.
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Sean Connery, Richard Harris and Samantha Eggar
Synopsis (IMDB): Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?
29m; U.S.
Director: Arthur Young
Synopsis: Davitt McAteer is one of America’s leading experts on coal mine safety. In 1984, he founded the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center (OSHLC), a public interest law firm based in Shepherdstown that engages in education, training and policy analysis of issues involving workplace safety and health. While director of this Center, he produced this film. In 1993, he was named assistant secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton. This film tells the story of the struggle for mine safety in the U.S., focusing on the tragedy of Monongah, WV, in which 362 miners died. In December 2007, WVU Press released his book on the subject, “Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Mine Disaster.”
Contact: Debbie Roberts, droberts@mcateer-assoc.com
30m; U.S.
Director: Peter Argentine
Synopsis: About the greatest loss of life as the result of a coal mine disaster in American history, the December 6, 1907 the Monongah Mine Disaster
Contact: www.argentineproductions.com http://www.monongahmovie.com/
30m; U.S.
Director: Virginia Bendl Moore
Cast: Earl Ray Tomlin (Himself); Senator Jay Rockefeller (Himself); Gov. Manchin (Himself); Bill Raney (Himself- President of the WV Coal Association); Warren Hylton (Himself- President of Patents Coal); Larry Gibson (Himself); Ed Wiley (Himself); Maria Gunnoe (Himself); Lenny Kohn (Himself- reporter from Appalachian Voices); Sam Cook (Himself- Appalachian Studies Professor at Virginia Tech)
Synopsis: A student made documentary about the effects of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. West Virginia; Coal Mining; Mountaintop Removal Mining; Strip Mining
Contact: E-mail filmmaker at movingmountains@virginia.edu
101m; U.S.
Director: Patrick Lussier
Cast: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Betsy Rue, Megan Boone
Synopsis: A tragedy unfolds in a West Virginia mining town, with only two people out of five surviving. When one of the survivors wakes up from a coma on Valentine’s Day one year later, he goes on a 20-person killing spree. 10 years later the inexperienced miner who caused the initial accident returns to the town, still haunted by the deaths he caused. However, a new killer, wearing a miner’s hat and using a pick-axe, is on the loose.
101m; Japan
Director: Shôhei Imamura
Cast: Hiroyuki Nagato, Kayo Matsuo and Takeshi Okimura
Synopsis (IMDB): Set during Japan’s depression years in the 50s, Nianchan (read: My Second Brother) tells the story about a family of 4 orphans, who are forced by circumstances to fend for themselves. Being in a mining town where the mining company is beginning to right-size its operations, jobs are getting scarce, and wages are getting lower with frequent cuts. Sticking together trying to find a way out of the vicious circle is close to impossible, and they realize that they have a better chance at carving a living if they split up.
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