By Kirsten Larvick
In 1972 over a dozen coal towns along Buffalo Creek, a hollow in Logan County, West Virginia, were overcome with 132 million gallons of black waste water. The devastating flood produced a 30-foot swell, ravaging homes and landscapes, killing over 100 residents, injuring over 1,000 others and leaving more than 4,000 of its 5,000-population homeless.
Mimi Pickering’s documentary, Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975), explores the events leading up to the devastation as well as the aftermath, examining the relationship of the corporate coal industry and the government to the community that was both dependent upon and abused by these two entities.
The disaster was the result of breaks in three dams, which were owned, operated and maintained by Buffalo Creek-Pittston Coal Company, which initially claimed the catastrophe was “an act of God”, the flood a result of heavy rains. Further investigation revealed the dams’ poor construction and maintenance, and a lack of concern, despite significant warning signs of the dams’ fragility, by Pittston management as well as government inspectors. The burst occurred just days after a federal mine inspector declared the dam “satisfactory.”
The government appointed a commission for inquiry, made up of officials who may have been sympathetic to the coal industry, rather than a task force of nonpartisan appointments. After the United Mine Workers’ concerns fell on the deaf ears of the commission, the labor union formed its own body to conduct an independent investigation.
Most heart-breaking are the testimonials of the flood survivors captured in Pickering’s film, and the psychological effects on the individuals who were left trying to put their lives back together both financially and emotionally with very little meaningful assistance from Pittston Coal Company or the government. Pickering spent time in the community, asking survivors through a non-exploitive approach, to tell their first-person stories. She also confronted coal company front-men to explain their actions and blatantly unsympathetic responses.
Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man is a testament to organizing and community strength and the power of grassroots storytelling.
On December 3rd the NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund and UnionDocs will host a screening of Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man, followed with a panel discussion with its filmmaker, Mimi Pickering (via Skype) and fellow artist/activist Sylvia Ryerson, moderated by labor rights activist, Michelle Miller (both in-person). Tickets and UnionDocs venue details can be found here: https://uniondocs.org/event/2017-12-03-resist-reform-repeat-buffalo-creek-flood-an-act-of-man/
The film is presented as part of WFPF and UnionDocs’ 10-part series, From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film, in celebration of NYWIFT’s 40th anniversary. Read more about the series.
Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man is distributed by Appalshop (https://www.appalshop.org) a nonprofit for cultural organizing and place-based media, arts and education to document the life, celebrate the culture and voice the concerns of people living in Appalachia and rural America.
womens film preservation fund
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Rachel Schwartz
Welcome to NYWIFT, Rachel Schwartz! Rachel Schwartz has been a staff member at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) since January 2019, in rising roles as the Manager, then Director, and now Head of Daytime and Children’s & Family Emmy Awards. Prior to that, she worked at the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, for eight years. Therefore, she is halfway to an “administrative EGOT.” Rachel graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University with a BA in Theatre and a minor in Women’s Studies in 2005. The crowning achievement of her education was her undergraduate thesis on a proposed new voting system for the Primetime Emmys. She has been obsessed with awards shows since sixth grade, when she passed out Oscar ballots to the rest of her class. She is proud to be a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Linda Nieves-Powell
Welcome to NYWIFT, Linda Nieves-Powell! New York-based Puerto Rican multimedia storyteller Linda Nieves-Powell has spent nearly three decades creating culturally specific, character-driven narratives that center Latina identity. Her work spans theater, film, digital media, and the page, from off-Broadway stages to college campuses nationwide, from a Sundance Screenwriting Lab semi-finalist selection to a Simon & Schuster publication. Her Imagen Award-winning stage work YO SOY LATINA! has been produced at more than 400 colleges across the country and off-Broadway. She is currently completing a screenplay called Idalis and Selenis Go Freestyle.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Sydney Sidner
Welcome to NYWIFT, Sydney Sidner! Sydney is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter and educator with an impressive resume of work appearing on TV, film and in the theater. In our interview, she encourages creators to be both passionate and flexible. Read on to learn more.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Katie Shannon
Welcome to NYWIFT, Katie Shannon! Katie Shannon is a producer and casting professional based in Brooklyn, with a storied background in marketing and brand management. She now works in administration at Weiden+Kennedy while bringing her creativity and organizational skills to various New York-based film and theater productions. Katie will be producing the US circuit of a one-woman show at The Brick on October 8th with London talent, Temi Wilkey. Notably, Temi’s European show, Lover Girl, recently got accepted into the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the SoHo Theatre in London.
READ MORE
