Little Guys Take on King Coal, Again

Review: The Last Mountain (documentary)

Coal River Valley in southern West Virginia, an area of steep, cloud-covered mountains and deep, narrow valleys, that locals call “hollows,” lies at the heart of Appalachian coal country. These days the valley is ground zero for a grassroots battle against Big Coal and mountaintop removal mining.

Photo courtesy Ucommon Productions and Dada FilmsActivist Maria Gunnoe at a blasted out mountaintop in West Virginia

In the past few decades, especially the 2000s, this egregious surface mining process, that involves decapitating mountaintops to get to the coal seams beneath, has ravaged nearly 500 Appalachian mountains, fouled the air and buried or contaminated thousands of miles of streams. The EPA estimates that by next year 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests will be cleared for such mining sites.

In Coal River Valley (and in many other communities across Appalachia), residents long have been suffering the consequences of such mining on mountaintops that overlook many of their towns — unusually high cancer and asthma rates, unprecedented flooding, polluted air and water laden with heavy metals. And they have been pushing back hard – demanding Big Coal cease and desist from this practice, referred to by some as “strip-mining on steroids”. This valley’s long-drawn, little guys vs. corporate giant, struggle has been the subject of several documentaries in the past few years, most notably, Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice (2006) and On Coal River (2009).

Joining the bandwagon now, is The Last Mountain which hits theaters in New York and Washington, DC, today. Much like the previous films, this unabashedly anti-coal documentary, too, profiles several stalwart Coal River Valley citizens-turned-activists as they struggle (often in the face of threats and insults from coal workers and their families who worry for their jobs) to secure the future of their valley, their children and their way of life.

There’s Maria Gunnoe, who was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009 for her anti-mining advocacy, there’s Ed Wiley, a former coal miner who once worked at a toxic waste facility that now threatens his granddaughter’s elementary school, there Jennifer Massey who talks of five unrelated neighbors in her little hamlet, including her 29-year-old brother, who died of brain tumor, and then there are the intrepid members of Climate Ground Zero with their tree-sitting and road-blocking civil disobedience campaigns. (The sturdy and forthright Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch shares some screen time, but isn’t a key subject. Sadly, 58-year-old Bonds, who was awarded a Goldman in 2003, died of cancer last January.)

Director Bill Haney pegs the film around the activists’ latest efforts to save Coal River Mountain — the last intact mountain in the vicinity that hasn’t yet been reduced to rubble by Massey Energy, which runs all the mining operations in Coal River Valley. The mountain is also the source of some of the few streams that haven’t yet been polluted with toxic mine waste.

Switching back and forth between moving personal narratives, scientific testimonies, archival news clips and on screen notes, Haney skillfully widens the scope of the story to look at how coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental and health concerns. He scores by bringing in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose passionate environmentalism and love for the mountains drove him to join the residents of Coal River Valley in their fight against Massey. Kennedy Jr. holds together the narrative thread of the film, smoothing the shifts in viewpoints from local to national and back.

Photo courtesy Uncommon Productions and Dada FilmsRobert Kennedy Jr. at a Coal River Mountain rally

Structurally, the film follows the typical narrative arc — Stating the problem (mountaintop removal), fleshing out both sides of the argument (environment/health vs. energy needs) and offering a solution (wind turbines on the mountain ridges instead of mines). However, the arc doesn’t quite hold through the entire length of the 95-minute film. The last section, especially, drags and could do with some serious editing. The cinematography is compelling, especially the heart-wrenching aerial panoramas of gouged-out mountaintops. But Haney should have kept the “less is more” adage in mind. Fewer blasting scenes, for example, would have had greater impact. Repetition in this case serves only to neutralize the horror of seeing the mountains being blown apart. Also, the film’s solution to coal – wind energy – is a tad too pat, given that even environmentalists are divided over the use of wind turbines. (Back in 2006 Kennedy Jr. had very publicly opposed a 130-turbine wind energy facility proposed off Nantucket Sound.)

On the whole though, it’s a well-told story of an important aspect of this nation’s energy debate and is definitely worth a watch. Coal powers nearly 50 percent of our electricity. For all I know, the computer I’m typing on, the TV screen I watched this film on, are all powered by coal. Figuring out a way past this damaging dependence is one of the major environmental challenges of our times.

The Last Mountain will immediately appeal the choir, many of whom are gearing up for next week’s March on Blair Mountain. (Read Bill Kovarik’s blog about this in The EnvironmentaList.) The challenge to the film lies in whether its message will resonate with the rest of America that would rather spend its weekend movie time watching The Bridesmaids or The Hangover Part II.

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