Coal Country CD, DVD and Book available NOW!!!

available now at select stores:

Coal Country MUSIC!!!
- CEDAR HILL REFUGEES WITH RALPH STANLEY - GILLIAN WELCH - CELESTE KRENZ -
- JASON AND THE SCORCHERS - JOHN PRINE - KATHY MATTEA - JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE
-JASON WILBER - SHIRLEY STEWART BURNS - NATALIE MERCHANT - TOM T. HALL -
- BONNIE RAITT - PHYLIS GELLER - JEAN RITCHIE - THE KLEZMATICS -
- SCHUYLER FISK - PUBLIC OUTCRY - WILLIE NELSON -

COAL COUNTRY is a dramatic look at modern coal mining. We get to know working
miners along with activists who are battling coal companies in Appalachia. We hear from
miners and coal company officials, who are concerned about jobs and the economy and
believe they are acting responsibly in bringing power to the American people. Both sides
in this conflict claim that history is on their side. Families have lived in the region for
generations, and most have ancestors who worked in the mines. Everyone shares a
deep love for the land, but MTR (Mountain Top Removal mining which has leveled over
500 Appalachian mountains) is tearing them apart. We need to understand the meaning
behind promises of “cheap energy” and “clean coal.” Are they achievable? At what
cost? Are there alternatives to our energy future?



I saw some reclamation that looked good… I saw some reclamation that they
said was good, but I didn’t agree with.  I said, "well... that looks like a golf course,
but that’s the ugliest golf course I’ve ever seen." A bunch of trees do not a forest
make. Not these kinds of forests. It’s a question of the biodiversity that’s being
lost. If you are person who lives next to one of these mines... if you have a mine
within a half a mile of your house… this thing’s gonna be mined for decades. If
these are the decades that are the prime of your life, it doesn’t matter if they reclaim.
You’re life has turned into hell. If it’s the prime of your life, and the entire contour
of the land, the makeup of the forest, and life as you know it get’s completely
altered, what you’ve lost is not quantifiable, but profound.
You know, I met a coal mining operator that bends over backwards to try to stay
within the environmental parameters that have been laid out.  And in fact his employees
were proud... really proud of their work because they said we’ll go further than
we’ll have to. I can really see their frustration for not being seen for what they are
trying to do. By the same token, all of that discussion takes place with the premise
that mountain top removal is ok to begin with. And that’s the discussion we
need to have. It’s really hard.
- Kathy Mattea



"My hope is this superb documentary will shock Americans and create a surge of
urgency that stops the atrocity of mountain top removal coal mining immediately."
- Ashley Judd



"Coal Country is incredibly moving, and an important film to see to be a truly informed citizen."
- Daryl Hannah



"A balanced, sober look at the reality of coal; both the good news and the bad,
and the staggering phenomenon that is mountain top mining. It not only reminds you
what it takes to turn your lights on, it'll make sure you remember to turn them off
when you leave the room."
 - Peter Horton, Director



“Mountaintop removal is the most devastating peacetime activity
in human history — in fact, if the destruction to our nation’s natural and
cultural heritage were being perpetrated by a foreign power, it would be
considered an act of war — because in a very real sense, it is — it
is a war against the Earth. Every week, mountaintop removal coal-mining
detonates more explosive force on the land and the communities
of Appalachia than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, to extract
the coal that is warming the planet and poisoning the water, air and land.
We should all be dedicated to ending this unsustainable, and ultimately suicidal
practice. And to promoting renewable energy alternatives and the
green jobs they will create."
- Woody Harrelson