Appalachia - My Journey to Understanding

Filmmakers sometimes use their work for self-exploration, just as writers and poets do. In that process we often find that we don't know what we thought we knew. My ongoing journey through the West Virginia coalfields proves that!


On each trip I listen to Muriel Dressler's "Appalachia."
It haunts me every time I hear it.

I am Appalachia.
In my veins runs fierce mountain pride;
The hill-fed streams of passion.
And stranger, you don't know me.
You've analyzed my every move.
You still go away shaking your head.
I remain enigmatic.

It's not easy to understand the strong hold that COAL has on this place where I live.This place that was overtaken in the 1800's by the railroads, the coal barons, the timber companies and the land grabbers. This place where coal miner's children languished in deep poverty while the coal company children lived high on the hill in the lap of luxury.

This place that seems not to have changed much in over 100 years.
This place - Appalachia - remains enigmatic.

Over the past year I have interviewed many new friends. I have learned about life in the coalfields through conversations over their kitchen tables. I have witnessed the shocking impact of the coal industry through my camera's lens.

I have stared into the mouth of a deep mine and cried when I surveyed over 7,000 acres of once-pristine forest land destroyed by mountaintop removal. I feel shock, dismay and utter disgust every time I see a valley fill or watch my friends wipe coal dust off of their belongings.I jump when I hear the blast that blows off a mountaintop and I freeze when I meet a caravan of coal trucks on our winding mountain roads.

Worst of all is the feeling of deep sadness and guilt when I walk and talk with the people on the streets of War and Welch and Kimball and all of the other towns in southern West Virginia. It is here that King Coal sucked the life out of the hollows before they packed up and left - just as they will do tomorrow and the day after and the day after. Towns that have been abandoned by their government. People that have been forgotten by their State. A culture that even I, a true Appalachian, have failed to understand.

I am Appalachia!
And stranger, though you've studied me
You still don't know.

Muriel Dressler understood what it meant to be Appalachia.
I am still learning.