CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Talk that Friends of Coal activists might picket the world premiere of the PBS documentary "Coal Country" on Saturday, July 11, underscores the emotions over mountaintop-removal mining and the daunting challenge faced by the filmmakers.

That's because a driving aim behind the 90-minute documentary, says executive producer Mari-Lynn Evans, is to encourage dialogue at a time when passions run ever hotter over the future of coal and how it is mined.

"I hope in seeing this film people can look at this issue and say, 'Where do we go from here?,' because we can't stay at the place we are," says Evans, whose Evening Star Productions crafted the film with producer and director Phyllis Geller.

Evans, Geller and crew spent several years on "Coal Country," whose $1 million budget came by way of the Adam J. Lewis Foundation, Sarah DuPont and the Park Foundation.

[After the South Charleston declined to show the film for "potential security concerns" it was moved to a packed-house screening at the state Cultural Center in the Capiotl Complex.]

A companion book, "Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining," will be released Nov. 1 by Sierra Club Books. A soundtrack is also due out then with music by, among others, John Prine, Kathy Mattea, Ralph Stanley, Woody Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt and a previously unreleased Jerry Garcia track.

The film features no narration. Instead, it depicts the lives of coalfield residents directly affected by mountaintop-removal mining. Among them are Judy Bonds, Kathy Selvage and former miner Chuck Nelson, turned activist by the fouling of their community's water and air and the blasting of mountains their families have known often for generations.

A heartfelt defense of such mining comes by way of Boone County mine operator Randall Maggard, who defends his company's work as responsible employment that feeds families and offers good-paying work in terribly depressed communities.

Evans, a Braxton County native whose brother is a coal miner, said brokering any kind of dialogue over mountaintop-removal mining and the future of coal is a Herculean task.

"Both sides have positioned themselves, and there is so much anger and hostility between the two groups, and no one is talking to each other," she said. "I find it really frightening. Someone is going to get hurt in this."

Evans was at the raucous Marsh Fork protest at a Massey mine site on June 23, where actress Daryl Hannah, NASA climate scientist James Hansen and former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler were arrested.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Talk that Friends of Coal activists might picket the world premiere of the PBS documentary "Coal Country" on Saturday, July 11, underscores the emotions over mountaintop-removal mining and the daunting challenge faced by the filmmakers.

That's because a driving aim behind the 90-minute documentary, says executive producer Mari-Lynn Evans, is to encourage dialogue at a time when passions run ever hotter over the future of coal and how it is mined.

"I hope in seeing this film people can look at this issue and say, 'Where do we go from here?,' because we can't stay at the place we are," says Evans, whose Evening Star Productions crafted the film with producer and director Phyllis Geller.

Evans, Geller and crew spent several years on "Coal Country," whose $1 million budget came by way of the Adam J. Lewis Foundation, Sarah DuPont and the Park Foundation.

[After the South Charleston declined to show the film for "potential security concerns" it was moved to a packed-house screening at the state Cultural Center in the Capiotl Complex.]

A companion book, "Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining," will be released Nov. 1 by Sierra Club Books. A soundtrack is also due out then with music by, among others, John Prine, Kathy Mattea, Ralph Stanley, Woody Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt and a previously unreleased Jerry Garcia track.

The film features no narration. Instead, it depicts the lives of coalfield residents directly affected by mountaintop-removal mining. Among them are Judy Bonds, Kathy Selvage and former miner Chuck Nelson, turned activist by the fouling of their community's water and air and the blasting of mountains their families have known often for generations.

A heartfelt defense of such mining comes by way of Boone County mine operator Randall Maggard, who defends his company's work as responsible employment that feeds families and offers good-paying work in terribly depressed communities.

Evans, a Braxton County native whose brother is a coal miner, said brokering any kind of dialogue over mountaintop-removal mining and the future of coal is a Herculean task.

"Both sides have positioned themselves, and there is so much anger and hostility between the two groups, and no one is talking to each other," she said. "I find it really frightening. Someone is going to get hurt in this."

Evans was at the raucous Marsh Fork protest at a Massey mine site on June 23, where actress Daryl Hannah, NASA climate scientist James Hansen and former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler were arrested.

Coal mining is not just an issue for coalfield residents, miners and operators, said Evans. "It affects everyone in West Virginia, Appalachia and everyone in the United States because this is where you're getting your electricity. And this is the price these people are paying for you to get your electricity.

"Whether it's the miners ... who worry they're not going to have a job and be able to feed their families, or whether it's someone who believes their water is being poisoned -- whatever your position, you need to know how the other side looks at this."

Yet a discussion about the future of coal in the Mountain State has hardly started, said Evans.

"Most people in this country, whether scientist or politician, are talking about the fact that coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Period. And that we need to move away from coal. Everyone is talking about that except in West Virginia. I don't hear any politician talking about what we're going to do when we move away from coal and move to alternatives."

The "mono-industry" in many central Appalachian communities must be part of that discussion, she said. "Those people down there have the choice of working for the coal company, they work for fast food or they leave the state. That's called enslavement when you have no opportunities."

Evans, who also produced the award-winning PBS series "The Appalachians," said "Coal Country" will be shown nationally in the fall or winter, with screenings in New York, San Francisco and elsewhere. But she wanted the new film to premiere in her home state. She returns here monthly from her residence in Akron, Ohio. "I live in Akron, but West Virginia's my home. Always will be."

The swath of mountaintop removal in the Mountain State is graphically shown and may come as a surprise to many, Evans said. It did to Mattea, shown weeping after an overflight of some sites. "Unless you see it from the air you cannot grasp the enormity," Evans said.

Yet she is grateful coal operator Maggard was willing to "stand up there and speak his truth" about the work he does, she said. "It puts a face on what it's like to live in this contentious time."

The future of coal "is the most vital issue of our time," said Evans.

"Everyone has a responsibility to make up their own minds and to decide what they can do to make a difference. We can all do something, whether it's we don't use as much electricity or try and develop industry in West Virginia so there is more than a mono-industry for miners to find other work.

"I don't know that's there's been more emotion and conflict since the Coal Wars with what's happening right now. This issue affects every one of us and it's not going to go away."

Reach Douglas Imbrogno at doug...@cnpapers.com or 304-348-3017.