Harry Caudill: A Man of Courage

Time-travel to a 1940s classroom with this exemplary educational film.

When people think of Appalachian music they often think of the banjo and classify it as bluegrass, but the music in the region is more diverse than that. This film focuses on the different styles, from old-time to punk music, that is played and often overlooked here in the mountains.

She was the first to study gorillas in their natural environment: the high mountains of Rwanda, where she settled in 1967. For nearly twenty years, Dian Fossey lived with the gorillas, observed their behavior, and changed the way people viewed them. Her relentless fight against poaching prevented the species from becoming extinct. But in December 1985, the primatologist was murdered, and the mystery surrounding her death remains unsolved. Former colleagues, scientists, and biographers shed light on the impact of her work, but also on the darker sides of her personality and her uncompromising commitment.

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.

“…It is a film that tells in hurried film sequences and a resonant musical score juxtaposing the sublime, funereal despair of Bartok agains tthe gut-bare tones of folk music. Gates has through his filming technique and meticulously selected mining sites, captured all the outrage and sorrow and indignity to the land and its people that strip mining represents. The film is one that all Americans should see, for it shows extremely well the price we have to pay for strip mined coal.” - Dale A. Burk, The Montana “Missoulian”

Bright Green Lies investigates the change in focus of the mainstream environmental movement, from its original concern with protecting nature, to its current obsession with powering an unsustainable way of life. The film exposes the lies behind the notion that solar, wind, hydro, biomass, or green consumerism will save the planet. Tackling the most pressing issues of our time will require us to look beyond the mainstream technological solutions and ask deeper questions about what needs to change.

When Edward Abbey died in 1989 at the age of sixty-two, the American West lost one of its most eloquent and passionate advocates. Through his novels, essays, letters and speeches, Edward Abbey consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the preservation of wilderness. Abbey authored twenty-one books in his lifetime, including Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and The Fool's Progress. His comic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activism. A writer in the mold of Twain and Thoreau, Abbey was a larger-than-life figure as big as the West itself.

On the 5th of March 1985, a crowd gathered in a South Yorkshire pit village to watch a sight none of them had seen in a year. The villagers, many of them in tears, cheered and clapped as the men of Grimethorpe Colliery marched back to work accompanied by the village’s world-famous brass band. The miners and their families had endured months of hardship. It had all been for nothing. The miners had lost the strike called on March 6th 1984. They would lose a lot more in the years to come. But was it a good thing for the country that the miners lost their last battle?

Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.

This documentary chronicles agricultural resistance and the fight for food sovereignty in Burkina Faso – a small, landlocked country in West Africa. Showcasing activist farmers, students, artists and leaders in the local Slow Food movement, the film looks at how the Burkinabé people are reclaiming their land and defending their traditions against the encroachment of corporate agribusiness. From women gaining economic independence by selling artisanal “dolo” beer, to youth marching in the streets against companies like Monsanto, to hip-hop musicians setting up their own farms and reviving the revolutionary spirit of Thomas Sankara through their music, Burkinabè Bounty shows the creative tactics people are using to take back control of their food, seeds, and future.

Prestonburg, KY is a small blue-collar town with hunting, fishing, coal mining, and two of the biggest names in online horror talk radio: Wes Vance and Aaron Frye (aka "The Creepy Kentuckian" and "Uncle Bill") The two self-proclaimed "redneck geeks" bonded at a young age while their weekends devouring horror films. They now use their extensive horror knowledge to record a weekly podcast on DEADPIT.com and have found a worldwide audience through their candid conversation, quick wit, and lots of swearing. What started as an outlet to express their love for horror films has evolved into an online industry with millions of followers and the ability to talk to their childhood heroes. But what happens when your childhood pursuits start to collide with your adult aspirations? Can Deadpit survive it's own success?

The fabled past of this iconic college basketball powerhouse is examined and reflected upon by some of the program's most notable figures, including Pat Riley, Jamal Mashburn, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Joe B. Hall, and John Calipari.

"Go Further" explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fueled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal? To show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives.

Eco-Terrorist: The Battle for Our Planet follows the most wanted environmentalist today, Captain Paul Watson. In this unique and groundbreaking film, Brown takes a deeper look into what really goes on behind the scenes in the deep waters of our world. More pranks, the glory of successful missions, and fiercer encounters with some of the most infamous and illegal marine hunters, while stopping at nothing to protect wildlife on a global scale. The film takes the audience right to the frontlines of the modern day environmental movement via those who started it.

A small town is overcome by a massive underground coal fire in 1962. As a result hundreds of residents had to be relocated.

Lee and Opal Sexton live in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, farming the land where Lee was raised. Lee is a retired coal miner and revered banjo legend, a living link to the deep past of American music. Though now well into his eighties and hampered by age, Lee continues to perform and teach his distinctive 2-finger banjo style to a new generation eager to preserve a vanishing cultural tradition. Linefork offers an immersive view of Lee and Opal's daily rituals and inherent resilience while documenting the raw yet delicate music of a singular musician, linked to the past yet immediately present.

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.

Documentary marking the 30th anniversary of the 1984 miners' strike, one of the bitterest industrial disputes in British history, with stories from both sides of the conflict.

Imagine an AM Radio Station with a dawn to dusk license that played nothing but jazz and comedy records. Did I mention it FLOATED in the Ohio River and changed the culture of a Community? The history of Cincinnati Jazz is long, wide, diverse and in the case of WNOP sometimes beyond belief. Saxophonist turned filmmaker Christopher Braig's second Film will focus on the people, music, and cities that kept "The Jazz Ark" sailing for 42 years from 1968 to 2000.

A retrospective of the work of the late actor Warren Oates, with clips from his films and interviews with cast and crew members who worked with him.