colin spoelman

The Mountain, the Miner, and the Lord is an intimate look at mountaintop removal mining, a particularly environmentally destructive form of coal mining that is prevalent throughout Appalachia and some western states. Like Traffic, Fast Food Nation, Crash, or The Three Burials of Meliquiades Estrada, the film takes a human look at a political issue affecting the nation. But unlike those movies, the issue is one that is almost unknown to most Americans.

While photographs can show the incredibly destructive nature of mountaintop removal, 35mm film is perhaps the best medium to show the incredible scale of destruction, where miles and miles of forest can be obliterated in months, literally dropping mountains into rubble in pursuit of easy access to coal. The script follows several characters: a mountaintop removal miner, a miner’s widow, a minister, a young journalist from the area, a safety inspector, a former miner struggling with addiction, and a politician modeled on certain figures in the current Kentucky leadership.

But the script is most powerful when it steps back from its political message and looks at the stories of individual characters, who struggle with problems faced by local mountain people year after year. The script looks at conflict within a community and how exploitation and physical destruction have implications not just economically, but also emotionally on the lives of individuals.

The script has been selected for the 2008 IFP Independent Film Week and was nominated as a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. The script is available by email.