Breaking news...BLACK DIAMONDS wins 2006 Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media award!
With 1,200 miles of headwater streams buried, thousands of acres of hardwood forest destroyed, and a three year old boy killed, Baltimorean Catherine Pancake exposes the environmental and cultural cataclysm that is mountain top removal coal mining in her home state of West Virginia. Using extensive research, interviews, home movies, archival film and gorgeous, timely new footage, Pancake expertly frames the destruction and its defenders. But it is the activists, with their down to earth eloquence and unshakable love for their Appalachian homes, that stand tallest. Joining Pancake for a post-film discussion: Patty Sebok, Maria Gunnoe (featured in Orion magazine), and 2003 Goldman Award Winner Julia Bonds.