Few people in West Virginia know the man who directed the most important film ever made about the state but almost everyone knows the name of the film, “West Virginia - A Film History.” This is most unfortunate because Mark Samels, the writer, producer and director of the four-part series, has become one of the leaders of documentary filmmaking in the world. Few people know that a man who came to WV in 1985 to work at Morgantown WVPBS, spending 11 years here, producing two landmark earlier series, received the work experience he would need to lead the most watched history series on American television, The American Experience. Hopefully, with the release of the DVD version of “West Virginia - A Film History,” more West Virginians and people around the country and world will know about the amazing filmmaker, Mark Samels.

Samels, a Wisconsin native, has worked on independent films, directing a film called “River Town” that is still distributed by Bullfrog Films. Before coming to Morgantown, he worked on PBS’s most important single series ever, “Eyes on the Prize.”

Between 1985 and 1996, working for Morgantown’s WNPB-TV, he worked on many WVPBS projects including two series, “A Different Drummer” and “States of Mind.” 

Here is what Samels wrote me in an e-mail, “In the 10 years I was with WNPB, there are two series I created and EP’d that stand out for me. “Different Drummer” used Jacob’s ground-breaking “Dancing Outlaw” as a prototype for a series about unusual individuals who stood outside of the mainstream. We produced around a dozen programs for the series, with Jacob directing most, and John Nakashima and myself several. We sold the entire series to the BBC.Similarly, I produced and shot a film with Paul Watson of the BBC called “Revelations” about a West Virginia state trooper that caused quite a stir when it was aired on PBS. (The Los Angeles PBS station, KCET, said it should be banned in the US, which prompted the LA Times to write a scathing article that praised the film and criticized the station.) With that as a pilot, Paul and I went on to co-EP a seven-part series for PBS and BBC called “States of Mind” that looked at communities across the country engaged in various issues, from race to the environment. “As Samels says above, the BBC broadcast “Dancing Outlaw” in Britain, perhaps explaining the recent feature film, “White Lightnin,” a fictionalized account of Jesco White’s life. I was told by several WVPBS staff members that “Different Drummer” actually beat Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” series at an international public broadcast competition, held in Ireland that year. I think that I recall Samels telling me once that he had shown some of the series to Errol Morris’ producer who was greatly impressed with it. I can verify that VHS copies of the series have been circulating around WV and the country ever since the series was originally broadcast. I have wanted to show them all at a film theater, back-to-back, so that people can have a chance to see as many different portraits as they wish. Samels left WVPBS in 1996, starting as a senior producer at “The American Experience” based at Boston’s WGBH-TV in 1997. He became the executive producer, the top person, in 2003. Most recently, the program presented the three part series, “We Shall Remain,” probably the best documentary series ever made about Native Americans. Everyone who watches “The American Experience” should know that the man who leads the series spent a critical decade of his life in West Virginia, refining his skills as a filmmaker until he became one of the best in the world.

Samels told me, “I owe my present job to two things: the experience I gained making “
West Virginia” and my persistence in trying to get the previous execs at American Experience to do a film on the Hatfields and McCoys.  Actually, there was a third thing: luck. ” I don’t know about the luck part, but I do know that thanks to his incredible intelligence, persistance, and hardwork, a very large project that had taken years to shape finally became a visual history of West Virginia that is unmatched as far as I know.

On Sunday, October 14th, 2002, Samels returned to West Virginia to present his documentary about a famous West Virginian, John Nash. As part of the Sunday program of the West Virginia Filmmakers Festival, he traveled from Boston to Sutton to screen, “A Brilliant Madness,” the “American Experience” film about John Nash of Bluefield, WV who won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Nash was the subject of the book that was turned in to the Oscar-winning film directed by Ron Howard, “A Beautiful Mind.” Samels e-mailed me that his daughter was born while he lived in West Virginia, and was indeed, currently, returning to West Virginia to explore her early childhood roots. He plans on visiting the state this July to visit with some of his friends and do some fishing and hiking.

I often tell people about Pare Lorentz, West Virginia’s greatest filmmaker. I knew Pare Lorentz, put him on the cover of my second film catalog for WVLC Film Services, screened his films at the Cultural Center as part of the Capitol’s 50th Anniversary Celebration in 1982, and suggested that the Pare Lorentz Award be set up at the International Documentary Association. Unfortunately, Lorentz died in 1992 so he couldn’t have seen Samels’ “West Virginia - A Film History.” If he had, I am sure he would have greatly enjoyed it. I hope that one day our grandchildren will know the names of Mark Samels, Pare Lorentz, John Sayles, Jacob Young, Russ Barbour, John Nakashima, Chip Hitchcock, Robert Gates, Daniel Boyd, Ray Schmitt, B.J. Gudmundsson and the other great filmmakers who have contributed so much to the lives of present and future generations of West Virginians.

A footnote - I have often read about a TV series done at WGBH-TV in Boston about Pare Lorentz. I asked Mr. Samels to see if he could find a copy for me to watch….so he contacted their archivist. Here is what he sent Samels -

The good news is that I know what you are looking for, the bad is I do not have it in our collection.  Description follows:Lorentz On Film, a series of four programs, contains six films by the man hailed by many critics as …master of the informational film form..They are being shown nationally on television for the first time.  The films include The Plow That Broke The Plains and…on natural resources, The Fight For Life on childbirth and public health, two World War II briefing films for pilots flying to Greenland and from Burma  to China, and Nuremberg, on the trials of the leading Nazis.Each of the four ninety minute programs is introduced by film maker and historian Charles Rockwell.  He and Mr. Lorentz discuss the aims of the film and…it was made, and then comment on the finished product after it has been shown.  Producer Edward Foote, co-producer Diana Michaelis, director Don Hallock.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.