Ancient Sunshine

A reflection on anarchism and labor, ANCIENT SUNSHINE marks a path through the struggles of climate activism and coal extractions in the American West.

2019-10-01 | en

Der lange Abschied von der Kohle

2017-09-26 | de

Harry Caudill: A Man of Courage

One of the most important Kentuckians of the 20th century, Harry Caudill brought the story of Appalachia to national attention when his book “Night Comes to the Cumberlands” was released in 1963. The nonfiction account of Eastern Kentucky’s coal region, part history and part polemic, eloquently recounted the exploitation of Appalachia’s land and its people by business and government interests, and made Caudill a national spokesperson for his homeland. Harry Caudill spent his life advocating for Eastern Kentucky, with the aim of helping the powerless as well as securing the region’s unmatched natural resources for future generations. His work led to lasting government reforms for Appalachia, and his legacy remains a touchstone for activists today.

2015-01-01 | en

Breakpoint: A Counter History of Progress

An account of the last two centuries of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. How human beings have progressed so much in such a short time through war and the selfish interests of a few, belligerent politicians and captains of industry, damaging the welfare of the majority of mankind, impoverishing the weakest, greedily devouring the limited resources of the Earth.

2019-07-14 | fr

Leaning on the tree

An apocalyptic sound of roaring machines incessantly intrudes into the habitats of man and nature. Barren landscapes and deserted villages linger in hypnotic restlessness. A self-destructive system meets resistance.

2025-01-29 | xx

"They Didn't Starve Us Out": Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s

For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO cut wages by a third, setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners settled in for a long strike. Finally, in 1925, the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in one sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.

1991-10-01 | en

Broken Rainbow

Documentary chronicling the government relocation of 10,000 Navajo Indians in Arizona.

1985-05-05 | en

The Miners' Strike and Me

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.

2014-03-12 | en

Iron and Steel Supply of the World

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

1947-09-01 | en

La Buena Vida - The Good Life

The village of Tamaquito lies deep in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. But the Wayúu community's way of life is being destroyed by the vast and rapidly growing El Cerrejón coal mine. Determined to save his community from forced resettlement, the leader Jairo Fuentes negotiates with the mine's operators, which soon becomes a fight to survive.

2015-01-21 | de

Bitva pod zemí

1949-01-01 | cs

Thatcher vs The Miners: The Battle for Britain

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?

2021-05-31 | en

Centralia: Pennsylvania's Lost Town

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

2017-05-05 | en

In Memory of the Land and People

“…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”

1977-01-01 | en

Justice in the Coalfields

This film demonstrates how labor law has crippled the collective bargaining power of unions and weighed the scales of justice against working people. The documentary follows the 1988 United Mine Workers strike against the Pittston Coal Company that followed the expiration of their contract and Pittston's termination of the medical benefits of 1,500 pensioners, widows, and disabled miners.

1995-01-01 | en

These were the reasons

This film takes us into the harsh realm of BC's early coal mines, canneries, and lumber camps; where primitve conditions and speed-ups often cost lives. Then, the film moves through the unemployed' struggles of the '30s, post WWII equity campaigns, and into more recent public sector strikes over union rights.

2011-05-01 | en

Blood on the Coal

A story of struggle and tragedy, the film features harrowing underground disasters, heroic rescues and traces a history of strikes, industrial turmoil and the current push by global mining giants to destroy regional communities and replace local mineworkers with a subservient itinerant workforce.

2015-08-12 | en

Coal Face

1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners.

1935-06-03 | en

Tinker

Semi-documentary, focusing on the training young boys receive before they are sent down the mines on their first job.

1949-11-01 | en

The Town That Was

An intimate portrait of John Lokitis, the youngest remaining resident of Centralia, Pennsylvania, and his quixotic fight to keep alive a hometown that has literally disintegrated under his feet. His unbowed determination and steadfast refusal to acknowledge defeat reveal a man, a town, a region, and a way of life abandoned and forgotten.

2007-09-07 | en