USA Projects

I am working to raise $5000 to support After Coal: Welsh and Appalachian Mining Communities.  This documentary film that explores how two mining cultures face the challenge of their dependence on fossil fuels.  Currently the Appalachian coalfields are struggling with chronic unemployment and environmental degradation, while Wales has experimented with strategies to rebuild their communities after the mines closed.  As the Appalachian coalfields enter their last generation of mining, this documentary project will help map directions to a sustainable future after coal. 

The funds you contribute to After Coal will allow me to bring a video crew from the Appalachian Mountains to the historic coalfields of South Wales.  We will revisit sites documented by Welsh Cinematographer Richard Greatrex and sociologists Helen Lewis and John Gaventa from 1974-1976.  During the last decade of full scale mining in Wales, this team made over 150 videotapes of daily life -- including rare footage of Welsh miners choirs performing with Appalachian musicians such as Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.

The interviews, images, and, sounds we gather will be combined with this rare archival footage, creating a feature length documentary that compares the coalfields of Wales and Appalachia.  A mix of music, soundscapes and landscapes will underscore the striking similarities between the mining of coal in both regions.

After Coal will consider what the Welsh experience after coal means for the last generation of Appalachian miners and their community. What happens when fossil fuels run out?  How do resource rich regions transition from their historic dependence on fossil fuels, while sustaining the community those fuels helped build? And, how can lessons from these areas speak to other resource dependent regions throughout the globe?

Your support will help launch a documentary project that creates hope for the future mining communities of Appalachia and around the world.  Thank you!