Razing Appalachia
(53 minutes) USA
Director/Producer: Sasha Water

Description:

In the misty folds of the Appalachian mountains lies Pigeonroost hollow, in Blair, West Virginia. With its narrow creek and crawdads, its wild ginseng and raccoons, Pigeonroost looks as it might have a century ago–a woody haven tucked away from time and technology. But for how long? In May 1998, Arch Coal, Inc. announced it would expand its Dal-Tex strip mine just above the small town of Blair. Forty families–where there were once 300–stayed in Blair. Razing Appalachia is the story of their remarkable fight –against the second-largest coal company in America, against the know-nothing state political leaders and, unhappily, against the 400 union miners whose jobs were on the line.

Biography:

Sasha Waters is assistant professor in film & video production in the department of cinema and comparative literature at the University of Iowa. Waters has written and produced for film and television, including associate producing historical documentaries for the acclaimed PBS series American Experience. She has also independently produced audio documentaries for National Public Radio. Her first feature documentary, Whipped, a feminist portrait of women in the sex industry in New York, screened at festivals across the U.S. and abroad. Waters was a fellow-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony in 1999 and 2002. She earned her MFA in film and media arts at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Contact Information:

John Hoskyns-Abrahall, President
Bullfrog Films
P.O. Box 149
Oley, PA 19547
Email: info@bullfrogfilms.com