Meet the Filmmaker: Bob Sharpe
&ldquo\;Before the Mountain was Mo
ved&rdquo\;
\;
Date: Thurs
day, May 12, 2011
Location: NY NATAS, 1375 Broadway (between 37th and
38th Streets), Suite 2103
Reception: 6:00-6:30 PM ~ Program: 6:30-8:
00 PM
\;
*Free to NY NATAS
Members!
$15 for those without current NY NATAS membership
\;
In 1970 the documentary Before the Mountain Was M
oved by Robert Sharpe was nominated for an Academy Award as
the best documentary of the year. Prior to making the film, Sharpe spent t
hree weeks with community action leaders meeting people in the hollows of
Raleigh County, West Virginia, where strip-mining was ravaging the country
side. He then returned with a small crew to interview and record a few of
the more interesting characters he had met. \; Outstanding among them
was Elias Bailey who spoke one of the more unique aspects of this film: th
e local dialect.
\;
In 1969, after serving 46 years as a coal miner,
\; Elias Bailey, aged sixty, stood in the state Capitol in Charleston
, West Virginia, to testify before a hearing on the ravages of strip-minin
g. Stricken by black lung disease, Bailey declared: &ldquo\;I&rsquo\;m jus
t a broke down miner now, whose tiny cattle farm and streams had been dest
royed by strippers. If the strippers tear your place up, that is an act of
God&hellip\;That&rsquo\;s not their fault, that&rsquo\;s God&rsquo\;s fau
lt. They want the money, a pocket full, a bank full, and then say it&rsquo
\;s \; caused by God.&rdquo\; Elias Bailey is a &ldquo\;Man of the Mou
ntains,&rdquo\; born and raised in West Virginiaas were his parents and th
eir parents before. Yet the mountains he loves contain coal, and with the
coming of great earth-movers he and his neighbors see the beauty of their
mountains torn away. Even as they watch, their houses and farms are damage
d or destroyed and their lives endangered by landslides from the strip min
ing operations in the mountains above.Lawyers to represent them are diffic
ult to find&mdash\;and indeed the law itself does not protect them. They f
eel their rights will never be protected, that the system cannot be change
d, that they themselves are incapable of bringing change about.Their strug
gle&mdash\;as much within themselves as in the forces that oppose them&mda
sh\;is the struggle many face who despair of being heard after generations
of helplessness.The documentary follows Elias from his mountain home to t
he town general store where he has an encounter with an obstinate coal bos
s, and onto the local community center for a gathering of mountain voices
against mining. Then Elias and three others embark on an interesting car t
rip to Charleston, West Virginia, which gives us a glimpse into the joinin
g of two races for one cause. All four end at the nation'\;s capital wo
rrying about testifying before the senate. Who will listen to poor folks t
hey wonder? Their testimony is riveting and raw&mdash\;the little people w
ith the powerful voices make their stand for their mountains.
\;
Robert Sharpe is a writer-direct
or-film maker who worked for such television programs as OMNIBUS
with Alistair Cooke, THE SEVEN LIVELY ARTS with John Houseman and
Andy Rooney, the NBC Special Projects Department and THE TWE
NTIETH CENTURY Series with Walter Cronkite during the Golden Age
of Television. He subsequently produced, wrote and directed films for
Harvard University, the United States Information Agency and the Office o
f Economic Opportunity. Before the Mountain was Moved, a feature documentary about the devastation strip mining inflicted
on people&rsquo\;s lives in Appalachia, was nominated for an Academy Award
. He was selected for inclusion in Who&rsquo\;s Who in the World 2000
and Who&rsquo\;s Who in America 2001. Mr. Sharpe has been a
photographer since he was ten. His work has been published in The Chic
ago Tribune Magazine, Popular Photography, Leica Magazine andThe
New York Times. His work is in the permanent collection of The Brookl
yn Museum of Art and has been shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Among
the photographic series he has done are Assisi, Italy\; Spanish Patterns\; Venice, Sicily &am
p\; Malta\; Interplay (people inte
racting with art works in museums and sculpture gardens)\; The
Unseen (images and voices of the homeless at The Bowery Mis
sion)\; Portugal in Black &\; White and Color
(with his wife Tina)\; Changes\; \;
Silent City\; \; Escalator\; \; and currently Ireland. He is on the Bo
ard of the Photography Committee of The National Arts Club, a member of AS
MP and DGA and is a President Emeritus of PAI (Photography &\; Imaging,
Inc.), a group of largely professional photographers formed in the 1950&r
squo\;s.
\;
R
ESERVATIONS REQUIRED DUE TO BUILDING SECURITY. ALL NAMES MUST BE ON GUEST
LIST.
Please RSVP via email info@nyemmys.org
to reserve a seat. Use film title &ldquo\;Before the Mountain was Moved&rdquo\; in subject line of email.
\;
Produced &\; Moderated by
Sumner Jules Glimcher
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