by Robin Smith

Introduction

This research provides a look at various contemporary alternative film distribution and access activities in Central Appalachia, with a special focus on films and distribution models that help to represent some of the regional challenges historically spurring political and cultural opposition movements. These issues include a history of environmental exploitation by corporate interests, the decline of the coal economy, high unemployment rates, racism, lack of representation of marginalized identities in public life and culture, and the stereotypical portrayal of these issues in the popular media, among others.  

It is my intent to share some resources that help bring to light and start community conversations around films that address these issues — whether it be a documentary opposing the corporate exploitation of mountain communities and landscapes by extraction companies, or a feature fiction film challenging stereotypes of the region perpetuated by popular media. At the same time, films that show Appalachian culture in a way that offers a counter-narrative to the stereotypes created by popular media can also feel revolutionary. As you’ll read below, a founding goal of the landmark media center Appalshop in Eastern Kentucky, was to “offer a counter-narrative to the one that made Eastern Kentucky the poster child for American poverty.” You can find these resources in the “Research Findings” section. 

On a personal note, having grown up in the periphery of Appalachia — one county over in western Virginia from an official geographic designation — many of my formative experiences with the arts, especially music and craft — were influenced by Appalachian mountain traditions. Similarly, some of my first encounters with environmental and labor activism were as a result of mountaintop removal and other extraction industry opposition movements in Appalachia. As a media maker, I am drawn to stories of people interacting with their environments and communities, and that I grew up where I did plays a big part in that. In fact, the first film festival I ever attended was the Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. You mean people actually gather and discuss the films they see and the issues they represent? This was revelatory for a teenage me, growing up in a rural place at the end of the internet-light 20th century, where and when film festivals and other opportunities to experience alternative film culture were not readily accessible. 

This is all to say, too, that I am an outsider, having lived in New York City for the past decade. I’m sure my distance will have some effect on this research, though I hope  it can be a useful tool for someone looking for a primer on the topic. I would like to thank filmmaker Mimi Picking of Appalshop and Walter Squire at Marshall University for their generous help in guiding me towards these resources. Any opinion or inaccurate information contained in this research is my responsibility alone. 

A Third Cinema Perspective

This project is oriented towards films and distribution activities that reflect aspects of Third Cinema theory, as we’ve analyzed it for a contemporary context this semester. Namely, these are films which include some of the various elements:

• Represent resistance and social change movements
• Distributed or presented in a way that enables and encourages community discussion and action
• Produced by and about people living in Central Appalachia
• Showcase opposition and action against a capitalist system that supports and allows for extraction companies to exploit the region’s natural resources and people

Central Appalachia at a Glance

The history of Central Appalachia and its communities is extensive and nuanced, and deserves more much attention and insight than I can provide here. For now, I’ll provide a very quick “at a glance”, to help readers unfamiliar with the region quickly locate it. 

Geographically, the region of Appalachia is anchored by the oldest mountain range in North America, the Appalachian Mountains, which span from Alabama to Newfoundland. The designation of “Appalachia”, however, refers to an area that encompasses counties in the southern cradle of the range — in Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and the entire state of West Virginia. I have opted to narrow the focus of this research to the sub-region of Central Appalachia, which includes counties in east Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, southern Ohio, and all of West Virginia (shown in red, yellow, and purple in the map below). 

As European settlers colonized America, indigenous peoples including the Shawnee and Cherokee were forced from Central Appalachia into reservations in the midwest and west. Today Central Appalachia is home to 6 million people, with more than half living in rural locations. Some counties in the region have fewer than 25,000 residents. While more than 90% of Central Appalachia is white and nearly 18% live in poverty, these statistics don’t paint a balanced picture of the region and its people. This Code Switch article provides a good introduction to understanding how the image of a “poor, backward, and white” Appalachia only functions to diminish the experiences and identities of the diverse people living there.  

Central Appalachia is complex and paradoxical — its natural resources can at once feel like its greatest asset and its greatest liability. Its natural beauty, with breathtaking mountain peaks, rolling hills and hollows, old growth forests, wending rivers and creeks, and small town and mountain communities contend with sustained poverty, environmental degradation and exploitation by the extraction industry, a dissolving coal industry and lack of job access, “brain-drain” or out-migration, poor educational systems, political corruption, an opioid crisis, and stereotypical portrayals of the region in the popular media. 

On their website, The Appalachian Community Fund, a non-profit organization which provides funding to groups organizing for progressive social change in Central Appalachia in order to address systemic problems of poverty, racism, and social inequity in their communities, qualifies the challenges Appalachians face: 

Despite these challenges, Appalachians have a diverse culture and rich traditions of resiliency and community along with a strong sense of place that have helped them persevere through difficult times. Although many are touched by deep poverty and hardship, Appalachia and its people have a generous spirit, strong determination, and great love for and pride in the unparalleled natural beauty of this region.

Next, I’ll provide a look at two distribution outlets that showcase films which represent labor and environmental movements in Appalachia, as well as films that work to subvert the tropes or stereotypes of the region. 

Appalshop “Making art and media in the mountains since 1969″

Appalshop is a shining example of community generated media in action in Central Appalachia. Located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, it began as a community film workshop in 1969. Back then, the workshop had three important goals: 

1. Teach young Appalachians to operate 16mm film equipment
2. Boost the economy through vocational training
3. Offer a counternarrative to the one that made Eastern Kentucky the poster child for American poverty

Today it has grown today to include a radio station, a theater, a public art gallery, a record label, an archive, a filmmaking institute, a reproductive justice program, and a community development program. 

Appalshop’s work centers on the idea that people should have the opportunities to tell their own stories. Their mission today, as outlined on their website, is to enlist the power of education, media, theater, music, and other arts to:

• Document, disseminate, and revitalize the lasting traditions and contemporary creativity of Appalachia
• Tell stories the commercial cultural industries don’t tell, challenging stereotypes with Appalachian voices and visions
• Support communities’ efforts to achieve justice and equity and solve their own problems in their own ways
• Celebrate cultural diversity as a positive social value
• Participate in regional, national, and global dialogue toward these ends.

This last part of their mission — “to participate in dialogue towards these ends” — positions Appalshop to be viewed in a Third Cinematic lens.

Appalshop’s collection of films shows a breadth of issues important to Central Applalachians that, as their mission states, “tell stories the commercial cultural industries don’t tell, challenging stereotypes with Appalachian voices and visions.” The topics of their films reflect the concerns of Central Appalachians, so it’s no surprise that a number of titles focus on labor and environmental struggles with the coal, natural gas and other extraction industries. Below is a sampling and description of a few of those titles, most of which are available to purchase in multiple formats as well as stream online. 

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. While strikebreakers work inside the mines and security men with guard dogs and cameras patrol the compound, miners on the picket lines detail the history of labor struggles in the region and their determination to hold out until victory. A.T. Massey CEO Don Blankenship, listed on AlterNet in 2006 as one of “the 13 scariest Americans,” addresses capitalism, social Darwinism, and the global economy, while Richard A. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, expresses union values.

 

Black lung is a debilitating, incurable, and often fatal lung disease caused by exposure to coal dust. Great Britain recognized it as an occupational disease by the turn of the 20th century, but the American medical community still denied any relationship between exposure to coal dust and disabling lung disease until the late 1960s, when a movement of Appalachian coal miners and a few maverick doctors and politicians forced the nation to confront the issue. Appealing to state and federal legislatures, and, when necessary, shutting down coal production with massive wildcat strikes, members of the black lung movement insisted on legal definition of black lung disease and demanded compensation for its victims, finally spurring Congressional passage of the landmark 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act in the wake of the tragic deaths of 78 miners in the Mannington Mine Disaster. Yet even the federal black lung compensation program continues to be the focal point of a confrontation between workers, employers, and policymakers. Fightin’ for a Breath looks at this 30-year history and the plight of black lung victims today, showing us what the federal compensation program was intended to be and what it has become — a regulatory maze designed so stringent that few disabled miners ever receive benefits.

 

Interviewed at home and on the job, female coal miners tell of the conditions that led them to seek employment in this traditionally male-dominated industry — and the problems they encountered once hired. Watching these women bolt mine roofs, shovel beltlines, haul rock dust, and build ventilation barriers leaves little doubt that they can, indeed, do the work while bringing a special understanding to the problems all miners face. Coalmining Women traces women’s significant contributions to past coalfield struggles and the importance of their newer position as working miners in an excellent film for audiences interested in women in nontraditional roles, women’s history, labor studies, and women as a force for social change.

 

On Dec. 3, 1984, the worst industrial accident in history occurred when a toxic gas known as MIC leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killing at least 3,500 people and permanently disabling 50,000. The tragedy in Bhopal brought international attention to the predominantly African-American community of Institute, West Virginia, site of the only Union Carbide plant in the United States that manufactured MIC. Chemical Valley begins with Bhopal and the immediate response in the Kanawha Valley, an area once dubbed by residents “the chemical capital of the world,” following events in the valley over the next five years as lines are drawn and all sides heard in the debate between those who fear for their livelihood and those who fear for their lives. Chemical Valley explores issues of job blackmail, racism, and citizens’ right to know and to act as it documents one community’s struggle to make accountable an industry that has all too often forced communities to choose between safety and jobs.

 

There is a constant tension between the forces of an ever-changing economy and the need to have stable communities. As technologies change, workers can lose their jobs and whole communities can be capsized. Beyond Measure looks at thousands of coal miners who are losing their jobs as newer and bigger machine moves through the coalfields. The film places the present challenges in a larger historical context and documents efforts of citizens to rebuild their communities, highlighting the beauty and challenges of living in the mountains through people’s descriptions of their daily lives in their own voices. They describe how the mutual aid and support of extended families and attachments to the land are more important than the things economists usually measure, prompting questions about the true costs of economic and technological change.

 

VandaliaTV: A Beacon for West Virginian Filmmakers

More than half of the population of Central Appalachia live in rural areas. While broadband internet availability is low compared to the national average, streaming has become a way for rural central Appalacahians to access alternative film, and VandaliaTV — a free streaming service featuring films made by West Virginia filmmakers — is an excellent access point. Launched in 2019, filmmaker and founder Nate Cesco saw the rise in West Virginia filmmaking in recent years and believes that this growing industry is a “beacon” for the state’s economy. He started VanaliaTV to provide a free and accessible place for West Virginia filmmakers to showcase their films, and for people to access these films. 

Selections on the site include short films, web series, mid-length and feature length, and showcase genres from West Virginia filmmakers, like horror, drama, comedy, and sci-fi. These diverse films do have something in common: They’re all produced by West Virginia based filmmakers. Whether they all qualify as a cinema of resistance operating outside of a Hollywood model of production is debatable, especially without more knowledge of their funding structures. One film featured on the site does stand out as occupying a space akin to Third Cinema is the feature fiction film, Meadow Bridge. Directed by Tihaj Bumgarner, here’s the film’s description on VandaliaTV:

Meadow Bridge is a coming-of-age story that follows Darcy, a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in a small West Virginia town in the late 1990s. It’s a story about growing up on the edge of poverty and possibility – about trying to reach out into the bigger world, while wrestling with where you’re from. It’s wry, comedic, and honest, with an all West Virginia cast. Transport yourself into a different world where you may have more in common than you think.

 

 

Bumgarner herself grew up in a small West Virginia town, and in an interview on Indie Grits Lab, she says she wanted to “construct a more nuanced notion of what it means to be from a small rural town….to show the universal experience of growing up without the usual tropes written about the region.” This act of filmmaking resists the stereotypes of region often depicted in first cinema — think Deliverance (1972) or Lawless (2012). It highlights the value of a “nothing about us without us” approach to filmmaking, a notion that often feels central to Third Cinema theory.

Research Findings

• VandaliaTV Free streaming site devoted to showcasing independent West Virginia films and filmmakers. (see above)
• Appalshop Landmark community media center focused on the idea that people should have access to opportunities that enable them tell their own stories. (see above) 
• Appalachian Media Institute Youth media program of Appalshop established in1988 to provide opportunities for young people from across Central Appalachia to explore their home communities, address local issues, and become thoughtful, engaged citizens through the process of place-based media making.
• Southern Documentary Fund A nonprofit arts organization based in Wilmington, NC (outside the Central Appalachian region) that cultivates documentary projects made in or about the American South. Inspired by a core belief that documentaries have the power to change lives and communities, they serve as a leading advocate for powerful southern storytelling, providing filmmakers and artists with professional support, filmmaking grants, and fiscal sponsorship.
• Working Films Provides funding and in-kind support to underrepresented filmmakers, and leads conversations and training with nonprofits to ensure that nonfiction media is increasingly embraced as a critical resource in their strategies for social change.
• Working Films’ Rural Cinema

Rural Cinema is a training institute and community engagement program aimed at supporting rural leaders across the United States in using films as a resource in their work for environmental justice and protection. In 2020, we will be selecting individuals and organizations in five locations directly impacted by polluting industries or transitioning from being economically fueled by natural resource extraction to adopting other more sustainable approaches. The program will support participants in holding live community events that engage their communities and advance their goals over the course of one year. These events will create spaces for residents to come together face-to-face, discuss issues affecting their communities, learn and be inspired by the visual content and one another’s experiences, and generate solutions that address their needs and priorities. Each host selected to participate will receive in-person training, technical assistance, and monetary support to hold film screenings in their community to support their goals throughout 2020 (from their website).

• The Appalachian Queer Film Festival A traveling film festival including films about and produced by members of the Appalachian LGBTQ community, accompanied by discussion panels and social gatherings.
• The American Conservation Film Festival Annual event held in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, featuring films from a diverse group of conservation filmmakers around the world. Mission includes: Curating and presenting contemporary films on conservation issues; supporting emerging filmmakers and new film projects; providing educational, interactive opportunities for filmmakers, audience members, and youth; and partnering with organizations, businesses, and individuals to share information and strengthen resources.
• Knoxville Film Festival Annual film festival with special categories for Appalachian filmmakers. 
• The Folkway Film Festival Held annually in Fayetteville, West Virginia, this festival celebrates stories “told the folk way” by showcasing creative and innovative films from across the Appalachia. *No commercials accepted. It’s a platform for cultural exchange and dialogue, and a way to help local filmmakers exhibit their films and enrich the community’s perspectives on Appalachian culture.