Movies Save Mountains

The Natural Resources Defense Council presents

Movies Save Mountains

An evening of film, music, and discussion about the fight to end mountaintop removal

With host SILAS HOUSE

And special guest KATHY MATTEA

Across the Appalachians, companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin coal seams below in a practice known as mountaintop removal mining. The communities of the region are paying the cost in their health, their culture and their natural heritage—and now, many are fighting back.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) presents Movies Save Mountains, an evening of film, music and discussion celebrating the power of people coming together to defend their communities and the mountains we love.

Join us at Nashville's historic Belcourt Theater for two powerful, acclaimed new documentaries that bring us into the lives of coal country residents grappling with the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In addition, enjoy a performance from special musical guest Kathy Mattea and a Q&A and panel discussion with filmmakers and coal country activists.

Featured Films

Deep Down is a one-hour documentary film about friends and neighbors in the mountains of eastern Kentucky who find themselves on opposite sides of the global energy debate when a coal mining company attempts to operate a mountaintop removal mine in their backyards. The film and multimedia outreach campaign explore the complexities of mining in the Appalachian region through an intimate portrait of one tight-knit community facing the economic and environmental impacts represented by fossil fuel extraction. Deep Down cuts across the issue and explores human friendship and the relationship of people to our planet.

Coal Country tells of the dramatic struggle around the use of coal, which provides over half the electricity in America. Passions are running high in the mountains of Appalachia. Families and communities are deeply split over what is being done to their land. At issue is the world's most extreme method of strip mining: mountaintop removal. At stake is the fate of America's oldest mountain range. In Appalachia, miners and residents are locked in conflict: is mining and processing coal essential to providing good jobs, or is it destroying the land, water and air? Ultimately, what happens in coal country matters to all of America and the rest of the world.