Overburden
(DVD)

Wide screen.

Editors, Catherine Orr, Elena Rue ; cinematography, Chad A. Stevens ; original music, Tyler Strickland.

Featuring Lorelei Scarbro, Betty Harrah, Bill Price, Rory McImoil.

The gas that caused the explosion was completely invisible. On April 5, 2010 the men working at the Upper Big Branch mine were doing what they always do, mining coal. But when a spark ignited the methane, a fireball ripped through miles of underground tunnels killing everything it touched, including 29 men. After the explosion ambulances raced by Betty Harrah's home. An hour later Betty, a fierce supporter of the coal industry, answered the phone, and as the voice revealed that her brother, Stevie, had died with 28 other men in the largest mining disaster in 40 years, her life changed forever. Yes, as Betty says, "coal is life here," but, she continues, "Massey Energy murdered my brother." It's not easy to take sides when the only option for a decent wage means putting your life, your home and your community at risk. Lorelei Scarbro knows this better than anyone. Her husband died of Black Lung, and Massey, the fourth largest coal company in the U.S., just announced plans to begin a 6000-acre mining project behind her home. In 2007 Lorelei spoke out for the first time at a public hearing. "This isn't coal mining," she yelled. "This is the rape of Appalachia!" Overburden is the story of a fiery, pro-coal right-winger and a tenacious, environmentalist grandmother as they take on the most dangerous coal company in America. These two lives intertwine as Betty and Lorelei unite to launch the first wind farm in coal country and to rebuild their fractured community. Decades after Barbara Kopple filmed Harlan County, USA, the coal industry is now facing extinction, and with an increase in alternative energy and the work of these two courageous women, the epicenter of change may just come from the most unexpected place, the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains.

DVD; NTSC; widescreen presentation.

In English.

Amsterdam Film Festival 2015, Special Jury Prize; Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2015, Nicholas School Environmental Award, honorable mention; San Francisco Green Film Festival 2015, official selection