Woodruff grad's film is playing in Peoria

A Peoria native's documentary on mountaintop coal removal will air on local television this weekend, and the director will head home to host a screening and question-and-answer session at a local theater.

Jen Gilomen, a 1994 Woodruff High School graduate who now lives in San Francisco, co-directed "Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country." The film will be aired at 11 p.m. Sunday on WTVP-TV, Channel 47, as part of the PBS "Independent Lens" series. Gilomen will screen the documentary at 7 p.m. Saturday at Peoria Theater, Film and Event Center, 3225 N. Dries Lane. A question-and-answer session will follow the 52-minute film, and admission is $8.

"Deep Down" focuses on mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachian region. Environmentalists charge that the process has destroyed ecosystems, buried streams and poisoned aquifers with heavy metals and toxins.