Directors Adams Wood and Francine Cavanaugh talk about their new documentary making its World Premiere at SilverDocs.

What made you decide to get into filmmaking?

Francine: I fell into documentary filmmaking through dance and theater a little over ten years ago. It was another way to weave a story and take that story to different audiences. I also love collaborating with other people. Having a group of seemingly disconnected ideas that can eventually lead to something coherent and powerful. To me, that’s the magic of filmmaking — and any other art form.

Adams: All through college I loved watching films. Then some friends and I who were involved with forest activism in Idaho started teaching ourselves how to shoot and edit videos, so we could document what was going on there. It was such a great way to communicate, and I love how documentary filmmaking gives you a way to step into someone else’s reality for a time.

Where did the idea of your film come from?

When we moved to the North Carolina Mountains from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002, we soon learned about mountaintop removal through an article in an environmental newspaper. We were startled by the pictures and descriptions of this coal mining technique, and we were also really shocked by our own ignorance – at that point, we didn’t even know where our electricity came from, let alone that our new home state was the number one user of mountaintop removal coal. Something about the concept of mountaintop removal really grabbed us though — maybe because mountains usually serve as metaphors for something that will endure much longer than we humans will.

Later we read an article about a grassroots environmental group called Coal River Mountain Watch, and we took a trip up to Coal River Valley where we met Bo Webb, Judy Bonds, Patty Sebok, and Maria Gunnoe. They were working out of a former post office in the middle of Whitesville, WV. Whitesville used to be a bustling city but it’s been in decline since the late 50’s. But in the middle of this very quiet, somewhat depressed town, this office had this infectious, war room-type of energy. These guys were taking on a powerful industry, and dealing with constant crises, and supporting each other personally, all at the same time, and with very limited resources. And they were doing it with a sense of humor and spirit that was really inspiring.

What did you learn from the process of making this film?

Francine:
We learned that sometimes it’s better to take your time and let things simmer and other times you have to grab the opportunity when it presents itself. We have more faith in the documentary process now, and we’re better able to live with uncertainty. We are also learning how to know when to keep on your vision and at the same time know when to let up and allow life to take you in unexpected directions.

Adams:
We learned what a big impact a committed group of individuals can have. When we started the film, very few people outside of Appalachia were talking about mountaintop removal. Since then, Judy, Ed, Maria, and Bo, and the others have really forced the national media to pay attention. They’ve been in Vanity Fair, People magazine, National Geographic — all over. It’s become a national issue, which it absolutely should be.

What did you do that you consider to be unique and/or original for this project?

We knew that this could easily be a very dark story, so it was really important for us to also find the moments of light and humor that we experienced while we were in Coal River Valley. We tried to accomplish that through our musical choices, the way the story is structured, and also by showing as many nuances to each character as we could, within the confines of the story. Even though most of our characters’ screen time is devoted to dealing with coal issues, we also tried to understand what was going on for them on a personal level, and find ways to let that come through.

We had great access with our characters over a period of five years, and we wanted to explore the story through their eyes and words, as opposed to outside experts. This was a different from our last project, where we focused more on the politics at large.

Any war stories you can share from the making of the film? Biggest challenges?

Adams:
We really had no idea that this film would be a six-year project — all along the way, we felt this huge amount of pressure to finish the film and get it out to the world. People kept telling us – now is the time, it’ll never be more relevant than it is now. We kept holding out for clear endings that seemed to be perpetually just around the corner, and Bo used to joke that the title should be “The never-ending story.” We finally edited together an ending that we were happy with, and we had two really dramatic developments — the first being the Upper Big Branch mine tragedy that happened in Coal River Valley. That was really awful to see, and it underscored the sacrifice so many people in Coal River make – regardless of what side they are on of a particular issue. The other development was an ending we had been waiting and hoping for since the early days of the project, and it was amazing to see it happen literally weeks before our premiere date.

Francine: I love documentary filmmaking because there are so many different aspects to it and you get to use different parts of your brain at different stages — but that presents its own challenges, too. Especially when we’ve been locked away in the editing room for months and months, living and breathing nothing but the movie, and then all of a sudden it’s time to face the world and you have forgotten how to be social.

What other projects are you planning for the future?

Right now our most immediate project is making sure ON COAL RIVER has the widest and most effective reach possible. We love the process of bringing films to audiences and using them to spark dialogue and action. We’re very involved in that part of it.

In terms of new film projects, we have a couple of ideas that are simmering and we’re waiting to see which one takes off.