Born Into Coal

I found this documentary to be very interesting. Looking into the lives of coal miners and their families was very engaging and I really enjoyed the narrative of the film. I do believe that the camera work and editing of the film made it more riveting and engaging than it would have been otherwise.

One thing I really enjoyed about this film was the close up shots. When the camera was closed in on the face or fingernails of the miner and showed all the dirt and coal that was caked into them, it really conveyed that coal was the lifestyle there. One time I found this particularly effective was at the end when the father is at the beauty pageant, surrounded by glitz and glamour, but his fingernails are stained black with coal. I think this really shows that coal in ingrained in the culture of West Virginia.

Another thing I found particularly effective in this film in terms of close ups, was the comparison between the mothers hand, the fathers hands, and the daughters hands. Like I said before, the fathers hands were always dirty and covered in coal. The mother had clean hands, but her nails were't painted  and she wasn't wearing much jewelry. The daughter had a different manicure in every shot. The differences int he hands of the characters spoke volumes to me about how women are seen in a town where coal mining ("mans work") is the focus.

The film followed three different miners and their families, interviewing everyone. The story board was set up in a way that it would follow one family for a while, then switch to another, but connect the two in some way. There was also some shots that would follow a family member to an event, whether that be a doctors appointment or the beauty pageant.

This film was very effective, mostly because of the cinematography. The use of close ups was very powerful. Al together, I really enjoyed watching this documentary.