Deep Down Materials

Download an entire Press Kit (PDF) with contacts, images, synopsis, Director's Statement, biographies, quotes, outreach campaign, Virtual Mine and social media projects, and some facts and sources compile through our research.

Download Deep Down's Screening Model (PDF)

Deep Down 30-second trailer: watch | Quicktime (mov) | Flash (flv) | podcast (m4v)
Deep Down 2-minute trailer: watch | Quicktime (mov) | Flash (flv)

Stills: Behind the Scenes | Signature Images | From the Film | the Virtual Mine | Deep Down Logo

Deep Down on IMDB | Deep Down on ITVS

Approaching the region: a note from the filmmakers

If you're from Appalachia or have spent much time there, you can skip this section. But if you haven't, we'd like to share some advice with you, take it or leave it. We realize this is a strange introduction to a press kit for a film, and yet, we feel a responsibility in every action we take as documentary filmmakers -- and largely have our subjects to thank for this. They never let us off the hook; and we thought long and hard about what we were filming and how we were representing the struggle and the place. They made us into better filmmakers.

Many Appalachian people are wary of speaking to members of the media. Coming into the region as an "outsider," particularly as a journalist, you may initially feel unwelcome. It is important to understand why you may feel this way, and to withhold your own judgment long enough to get to know people and build trust. If you do, you'll be rewarded with some of the most amazing hospitality and friendship on earth. Over many decades, Appalachian people have been treated poorly by some members of the press and by visitors, with poverty in the region seen as something endemic or something to be gawked at. A long string of reporters, photographers, and filmmakers have breezed through, drawn by the region and its people, and often leaving the people mis-represented, ashamed, or angry. Before you take down those sound bytes and snap those photos, please think carefully about what you are showing and why. It is true -- the Appalachian people are often proud, the culture unique, the landscape picturesque. This may go without saying, but it is critical to always put yourself in the shoes of the person or people you are portraying.

Writing about these issues

Mountaintop removal mining has been around for over fifteen years, but it didn't start making national news until just a few years ago. The issues related to mountaintop removal and coal-fired power production -- from the people and communities grappling with it, to the economic, social, and cultural aspects, to our own implications in the process -- are layered and complex. This is why we were drawn to make a film on the subject.

• removal of biodiverse ecosystems
• loss of entire forests and the species they support
• removal of nutrient-rich soil created over hundreds of thousands of years
• contamination of groundwater and drinking water

• noise pollution, machinery and use of explosives, sometimes over many years
• frequent deaths due to coal trucks permitted to exceed the weight limit on narrow, winding mountain roads
• dust and air pollution; including the fatal diseases black lung and rock lung (silicosis)
• injuries and deaths related to explosions, including boulders and landslides
• impoundments, designed to contain giant coal slurries of mine waste, breaking over time
• flooding, including flooding mixed with coal slurries

• Why do extractive industries tend to cause tension within communities?
• What happens when people choose to try to stop a coal company?
• Why is Appalachian culture unique? What should be preserved?
• What are the economic forces at play in a community whose economic foundation is natural resource extraction?
• How can we solve this problem while still providing electricity and jobs in Appalachia?
• What else can miners do for a living, to support their families?
• Are there other ways to produce energy on a massive scale? Is it more expensive? And what are the pros and cons of the alternatives?

Who to talk to

The Directors of Deep Down can put you in touch with folks from the film or the many great organizations we've worked with (just contact us), or you can reach out to them yourselves.  Here's a list of many of those organizations.