Faces of Black Lung - a free movie
NIOSH has produced “Faces of Black Lung,”an informative, short film about the ravages of black lung that is available FREE to the public. The 13.5 minute film was released in June 2008 so it is up-to-date in its analysis of the surge in underground miners with the horrible, deadly condition. ( Contact Anita Wolfe - (304) 285-6263, awolfe@cdc.gov)
I discovered the film while searching WorldCat for films about coal mining. I was searching in particular for the film I saw in August called “Black Lung - A History” that was shown at the 30th anniversary of WV’s Black Lung Offices. Ken Hechler was honored for authoring The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 the landmark legislation that created the coal dust standards, making the U.S. the last industrialized country with such standards. Richard Hanna of the Charleston Black Lung Office programmed the celebration and provided Hechler with a copy of the films they screened. The three films were the unreleased MSHA film on black lung, footage from national media about the Black Lung Movement here in WV and his campaign to get the federal legislation passed following the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster plus another official film made by MSHA called “Reflections - Mining History” that details the history of the MSHA Black Lung program. I incorrectly stated in my review of “Black Lung - A History” that Richard Hanna could provide copies of the film. Indeed, the film has not yet been officially released, but should be in 2009 according to Peter Beal, who works at the MSHA Mine Safety Academy in Beckley, WV. (Beal.peter@dol.gov) He gave me permission to show a clip of the film in December at the WV Library Association conference to be held, for the last time, at The Greenbrier Resort. As I wrote in my review of the film, I consider it to be one of the very best films I have ever seen since I came to WV, ranking it with Oscar-winner “Harlan County, USA.” As I told Hechler, “No film I have ever seen shows how a supposedly crushed group of people can rise up, make first their own union, then the state legislature, and finally the Congress and President face their own murderous failure to protect workers. I wish that President Obama would show it in the White House and make all of his new Cabinet watch it!
The film that is now available, “Faces of Black Lung,” does NOT explore the history of black lung, but it does a very good job of focusing the viewers attention on the current increase of black lung in our current situation. The study guide that comes with the film is very informative as well, listing websites and key messages for the trainer using the film.
Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated, WV-born and raised filmmaker, did one of this best performances last June in the opening segment of his FX series, “30 Days.” He spent a month working in a real southern WV coal mine. One of the most touching scenes is when he takes his host, a mine foreman, to get a black lung test. He discovers that despite his own belief, like the two miners interviewed in “Faces of Black Lung,” he does in fact have black lung.
Hopefully I will be able to present the world/WV premiere of “Black Lung: A History” in May 2009 at The South Charleton Museum’s La Belle Theater, co-sponsored by the WV Labor History for its annual Labor History . We may even show this film to show what all of their activists achieved way back in the 1960s.
