Morgan Spurlock is one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers, and NOT because he is from WV. His films, TV series, books, and various campaigns have all been very well done, right one, and something we all need. I think that his latest “30 Days - Working in a Coal Mine” is his best creation so far. He really put his heart into it, and I think that he did something that NO ONE has done that I am aware of………returned to his native WV after great success in NYC, Hollywood, Sundance, etc. and worked for an entire month as a real-live coal miner.

I savored every scene, recalling the total opposite scenes that were somewhat like them from that Paris Hilton reality show that involved her living with “real people.” Morgan had a greatly different attitude. The most touching scene was when he and his host returned from the black lung MD where he found out that contrary to what he believed, he had it all through his lungs - and he is only 53.

The Charleston Gazette had a front page story on Tuesday, showing Spurlock at the Tamarack Center theater when he screened the film for the miners he worked with, his family members who live in Beckley, and various WV filmmakers including Daniel Boyd and Terry Lively.

Of course, every WV history course should show this particular episode on coal mining in the 21st century.

I hope that teachers around WV and the world will make use of some of their favorite episodes of the first two seasons for “30 Days” which were released on DVD this week.  I particularly enjoyed the one with his Charleston friend spending time in a Muslim family near Detroit.

Here is Ross Ballard, a former coal miner’s review -

MountainWhispers.com Audiobooks gives Morgan Spurlock’s compelling documentary “30 Days - As a West Virginia Coal Miner” a big thumbs up!…

Every scene, above ground and below, brought back my own memories as a young coal miner inBoone
County.  I worked for a couple of years in the mid 70’s at Westmoreland’s Ferrell #17 and later Eastern Associated Wharton #2 mines to save enough money to go the college full time. I think I was most struck by how much has not changed with mining in the 30 years since I walked and shoveled the belt line as a ‘red cap’ miner.  Safety is still the number one issue in the mining industry. Miners didn’t like the uncomfortable (and in my opinion dangerous) respirators 3 decades ago and they don’t like them now, even knowing that wearing one could over the long haul prevent the scourge of Black Lung.  What the show did most of all was to prove that being a coal miner is a 24/7/365 life style.  Your wife worries about you.  Your kids worry about you.  Hell, if you’ve got a dog, it worries about you.  Everyone who knows and loves you worries about you.  Not so surprisingly, the only entity in your life that doesn’t seem to ‘worry’ about you is your employer. That is why miners have always relied on each other.  Coal mining is a brotherhood, not just a job.  The show’s hour went by so fast with Morgan illuminating both the industry and the community.  Thank you, Morgan for shining a miner’s light onto one of
America’s most needed yet too often misunderstood career choices. Ross…MountainWhispers.com Audiobooks“When Miners March - The Battle of Blair Mountain” available on CD

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