Before the Mountain Was Moved

This is quite a potent documentary that shines a light on the ghastly effects of strip mining on a small West Virginia community. Their erstwhile pristine landscape is being systematically destroyed by miners who care little for their environment and even less for their objections. It’s on that latter front that these largely uneducated folks decide to get together and take their battle to the state Congress. They are nervous and apprehensive, and those advising them are clear that they face opposition from a state Senate that has unanimously approved the legislation that will permit this devastation, and - of course - from the conglomerates whose pockets this seemingly endless supply of coal is filling. There’s one scene here where a pair of strapping young lads are trying to dig a man’s car, parked on his own property, from three foot of sludge that does rather epitomise the scale of their problem. Their houses are now little more than islands in a sea of mud. Their communities destroyed by the after-effects of this destruction. Their determination to fight is well captured by some intimate photography and by some poignantly honest pieces-to-camera from a diverse population who might not know quite the right words to use, but who nonetheless manage to eloquently present their case and engage with the media upon whom they are also going to have to rely. Can they get the lower house to arrest this “progress” while there is still time? It doesn’t really go into much detail about just why this form of mining is taking off, nor really of the massive increase in energy demand from consumers very much like themselves that is driving some of that toxic activity - but when you are living on top of a latter-day slag heap, I don’t suppose that matters to them when the consequences are so life-affecting.