1 00:00:33,060 --> 00:00:39,690 It's a mid-December morning and I'm on a bus headed down South from Chinatown, New York. 2 00:00:39,690 --> 00:00:47,120 The reckless driver speeds up on the icy roads. I am traveling across the States in a snowstorm... 3 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,570 because of a book. Written over the span of 20 years, back and 4 00:00:51,570 --> 00:00:58,620 forth from the mining areas of Eastern Kentucky, the book by Italian scholar Alessandro Portelli, 5 00:00:58,620 --> 00:01:05,720 is a monumental collection of oral history. It tells the struggle of a secluded world 6 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:12,650 built around the mining of coal, when immigrants would come to the area to work well-paid but 7 00:01:12,650 --> 00:01:21,400 often ill-fated jobs. The book tells the story of Harlan County. And that's where I am going. 8 00:02:04,420 --> 00:02:10,360 I'm headed to the Deep America of Portelli's book. I want to see what's left of that world 9 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:18,590 30 years since his first visit, now that the US is shifting to natural gas and coal mines 10 00:02:18,590 --> 00:02:24,790 are shutting down, one after another. I do not expect to find a lively city. But 11 00:02:24,790 --> 00:02:32,120 when I drive into Harlan, I find a ghost of a city, where people are stuck, like characters 12 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:37,760 in a black and white picture. Their stories and their voices have not changed 13 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:44,620 much from those recorded by Portelli in his field research and that today are leading 14 00:02:44,620 --> 00:02:46,720 me in this journey. 15 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:53,510 I'm a hillbilly. 16 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,530 Well, what is a hillbilly? 17 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:00,060 I don't really know what a hillbilly is. 18 00:03:01,340 --> 00:03:03,900 They call them a backwoods person. 19 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:08,990 But I ain't a backwoods person because I've been in 38 states. 20 00:03:08,990 --> 00:03:10,920 Plus, at least in Italy. 21 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:14,360 Yeah, and Canada. And Canada, yes. 22 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,880 But, I've drove through 38 states. 23 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:35,400 I wouldn't classify myself as a hillbilly. But I am proud to be from the Appalachian Mountains. 24 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:41,080 They call it Appalachian Mountains but the old people called it the Appalachee Mountain. 25 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:09,680 I got married when I was 16-years-old and my husband was 17-years-old. 26 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:14,800 We had been married about six months when he went into the mines 27 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:24,320 and six months after that he died in an electrical accident. And we had a two-week-old son. 28 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:37,360 Lady lives down the street here on the end. Her husband was killed where the mine stand 29 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:45,240 here when it was running. Him and his brother-in-law and another guy, they went in on Christmas Eve. 30 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:50,260 Company wanted some holes drilled and some charges set off so they'd have some coal 31 00:04:50,260 --> 00:04:54,240 ready for after Christmas. They went in there. 32 00:04:54,240 --> 00:05:00,080 Anyways, sunk the hole up, put the dynamite and stuff in. 33 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:06,800 And when he backed up, got into the high voltage wire and it barbecued him, roasted him, killed him instantly. 34 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:11,440 Like that, that much power, two or three thousand volts, 35 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:18,280 something like that it went through him. Killed him, and he was killed in that mine. 36 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:23,200 That's 1956. Name of Robert Camel. 37 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:43,320 I find remnants of the mining history all over. Memories of the casualties and the hard 38 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:49,320 labor are alive in the stories told by the young and old alike. 39 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:55,360 They are nostalgic for the glory of collective struggle and hard work paid-off. 40 00:05:55,360 --> 00:06:04,480 Speaking to the locals in dusty bars and saloons, I can see that their life was, and still is, mining. 41 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:12,720 Mines are their narrative, their collective legend and whoever played a part wears it with pride. 42 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,560 They are survivors of a world disappearing before their eyes. 43 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:25,240 This is the newspaper. That's my Granny. He worked first shift. He just got off shift 44 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,570 that day, first shift. They came in second shift when the mine exploded, so he escaped it. 45 00:06:30,570 --> 00:06:36,880 I guess he got them out of job. That's my grandpa, my grandma, and my six uncles, right there. 46 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:04,030 You'd never let him leave home mad at each other. You always had peace because you don't 47 00:07:04,030 --> 00:07:09,560 know if that's the last day you'll see him. 48 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:32,130 The water in the mines that you would have to drag through water, it would get up over 49 00:07:32,130 --> 00:07:39,280 your knees and the horses would have to pull through it, the ponies would, 50 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:45,680 and then they would lay two-by-fours for tracks sometimes when they'd run out of track. 51 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:54,500 People here need work, like anywhere else. There is nothing for them to do. All the young 52 00:07:54,500 --> 00:07:58,680 people are turning to drugs, alcohol. 53 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:06,400 If someone would, from out of state I would say, from our government, 54 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:13,080 would get get interested in this place, this part of Kentucky, I think we could 55 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:15,600 – these young people could – make it. 56 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:23,600 But if they don't, they are dying every day. Overdosing and, this, that, and the other. 57 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,240 Well, I went to Harlan County looking for the class struggle. 58 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:54,700 And the class struggle is still going on. 59 00:09:54,700 --> 00:09:59,550 Maybe not in terms of the unions but for instance right now, in terms 60 00:09:59,550 --> 00:10:00,890 of the environment. 61 00:10:06,900 --> 00:10:10,240 You're taught that you can't fight a coal company and win. 62 00:10:12,220 --> 00:10:14,760 Nobody's ever fought a coal company and won. 63 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,080 You're wasting your time. They're 64 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:22,860 very evil people, you know, they 65 00:10:22,860 --> 00:10:25,780 do things to the families. 66 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:27,760 They do things to the young'uns. 67 00:10:53,820 --> 00:10:58,880 Of all Kentucky counties, Harlan produced the most coal, 68 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:05,020 at the time in which most of what powered the United States came from Kentucky. 69 00:11:06,860 --> 00:11:11,500 Today, the 33 active mines left in Harlan 70 00:11:11,540 --> 00:11:13,940 employ less than a thousand. 71 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:18,460 Some of the old mines have even been converted into museums. 72 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:26,040 Laid off and left with nothing since the 90s, many live off welfare. 73 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:28,780 They don't see any other options. 74 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:31,980 In the few hangouts in town, 75 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:36,120 unemployed men are the usual customers. 76 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:44,800 Well Harlan County was founded on coal, I mean that's the reason Harlan County was built. 77 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:52,000 It is Harlan County's livelihood, it's its backbone. Basically it’s what Harlan County is, 78 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,380 it's built on coal. And if you ain't got the coal, there’s nothing else here. 79 00:11:57,380 --> 00:12:02,190 We don't have the luxuries of the big cities, we don't have factories 80 00:12:02,190 --> 00:12:07,670 and the reason why that is, because we’re so secluded in the mountains, we don't have the roadways in which 81 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:11,560 larger semi-trucks can come in and out. And, 82 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:14,880 I could go flip hamburgers at the local McDonald's 83 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:20,040 or I could go down there at the pizza joint, make a pizza, but that's not gonna pay my bills 84 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:22,400 Harlan used to be a booming place, 85 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:27,360 you could walk down the streets find anything you wanted. 86 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,440 If you didn't watch you'd run over people cause the population was so big. 87 00:12:32,560 --> 00:12:36,080 The coal mines started leaving, during the strike and now is getting worser. 88 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:37,520 Everybody’s having to leave home. 89 00:12:38,540 --> 00:12:39,340 Well, 90 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:42,650 I have been working since I was 15, 91 00:12:42,660 --> 00:12:43,780 altogether. 92 00:12:43,780 --> 00:12:47,080 And I went into mines when I was 21, 93 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:50,280 somewhere around there. 94 00:12:50,560 --> 00:12:51,920 It looked like a good future. 95 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:55,200 All my uncles that worked underground 96 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:59,800 was working through the '70s when all the striking and everything was good, 97 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,310 and they told me not to get too comfortable, and I did. 98 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:04,780 I don't know what I am gonna do. 99 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:11,440 If we don't get something here, in another 10 to 12 years it's gonna be a ghost town. 100 00:13:12,580 --> 00:13:16,780 There won't be nobody here but retired people and people who draw checks. That’ll be all of it. 101 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,560 When I went in the coal mines I was 18-years-old, 102 00:13:22,740 --> 00:13:24,920 it was right when I got out of high school. 103 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:29,840 And I worked in the coal mines for 5 years underground and 2 years surface mining. 104 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:33,800 I am a waiter here at the Huddle House. 105 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:37,000 Is the pay better than in the mines? 106 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:43,840 Oh, no… I make 2 dollars 13 cents an hour plus tips and since coal mines 107 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:51,080 aren't around anymore, the tips aren’t very good. There is not as much money in the town of Harlan. 108 00:13:57,680 --> 00:13:59,200 What am I doing here? 109 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:00,880 I just got out of jail! 110 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:02,880 For what? 111 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:05,840 Possession of stolen property. 112 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:07,640 I’m not guilty. 113 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:10,760 I mean, jail is jail. 114 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,160 It’s not good, but 115 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:16,720 it’s alright. 116 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:20,960 They feed you three times a day 117 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:27,360 give you a place to sleep, roof over your head, TV, all that stuff. 118 00:14:54,240 --> 00:15:00,000 When I was a teenager, Smith and Jones’ creek, that was the two of the roughest places around here. 119 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,040 Well, I started carrying a pistol when I was 120 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:04,480 about 12 years old, 121 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,320 and I've carried one ever since and I still carry one. 122 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,800 I'm the gun guy here at the pawn shop, for the past five years. 123 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:44,560 We take everything from, 124 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:50,960 DVDs, boat motors or whatever you wanna imagine. We have some motorcycles, and some other things. 125 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:54,480 The mining equipment, we would take a lot of that stuff. 126 00:15:54,640 --> 00:16:00,240 We would sell a 400 dollar mining helmet maybe once a week, lights daily, 127 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,640 but the fact that mines are shutting down… 128 00:16:03,420 --> 00:16:07,520 makes it difficult to sell that stuff because these were being sold to personal miners 129 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:09,100 for their own use. 130 00:16:09,540 --> 00:16:12,720 They are not into mining anymore of course they are not buying it. 131 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:15,840 Have you been working in mines? 132 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:17,680 23 years 133 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:18,880 Where? 134 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:22,560 Where? All over Harlan, Perry County. 135 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:24,340 Just 136 00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:25,120 Everywhere. 137 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,720 In the stasis of today, 138 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:36,720 it's hard to see any traces of the turbulent past that once made Harlan notorious. 139 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:43,200 The county is still mostly ‘dry’, and was one for years. 140 00:16:43,660 --> 00:16:45,840 People used to make moonshine. 141 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:52,160 Now drugs are on the rise: at first pain killer prescribed by doctors 142 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:55,120 to treat the injured and sick miners, 143 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,800 now, an escape from the emptiness. 144 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,400 There’s a lot of people here that's addicted to prescription drugs. 145 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:08,320 Oxycone, Percocet, Xanax, Valium, 146 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,840 pretty much anything that makes them feel better 147 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:13,960 or they think that make them feel better. 148 00:17:14,940 --> 00:17:17,860 We have a lot of problems with items that come in that are stolen, 149 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,500 and maybe not just from drugs users but that is a problem. 150 00:17:22,500 --> 00:17:24,120 And I can say, again it's desperation, 151 00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:26,600 it's trying to get some money to maintain a habit, you know. 152 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:32,300 And I think since all this, you know the mining, the depression of the mining and everything, 153 00:17:32,340 --> 00:17:35,560 it's caused a rise in pills. 154 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:38,460 Pills are the new alcohol. 155 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,320 You're talking about the Forties. 156 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,380 I'm talking about the Forties and Fifties. 157 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,280 So in the fifties well, 158 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,220 we made moonshine, and sold it. 159 00:17:51,940 --> 00:17:56,720 During the summer we'd pick huckleberries, blackberries; sell them. The huckleberries we'd 160 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,760 carry into Virginia, sell for a dollar a gallon. 161 00:18:00,780 --> 00:18:05,200 The blackberries we only got a quarter a gallon. But we'd get enough 162 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:07,140 money from that 163 00:18:07,260 --> 00:18:11,460 to buy clothes and some food for the winter. 164 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:16,200 Mostly what we bought for in the food line was cornmeal and 165 00:18:16,340 --> 00:18:22,420 lard, beans, soup beans, what we called pinto beans. We call 'em soup beans yet today. 166 00:18:24,100 --> 00:18:24,640 So 167 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,920 it was a rough life but a good life. 168 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,880 In the beginning I would only have to take 169 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,620 a few. I could do one and it would last me all day. 170 00:18:36,820 --> 00:18:40,240 Towards the end of my drugs addiction I was taking 171 00:18:41,380 --> 00:18:43,240 5 to 10 of the 172 00:18:43,380 --> 00:18:44,680 Oxycodone 80s 173 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:46,800 before they switched 174 00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:49,280 to the one that gelled them up, 175 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,040 I went from a 50 dollars day habit 176 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,160 to a 1,000 dollar day habit. 177 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,140 The jobs are gone. Coal mines, 178 00:18:59,060 --> 00:19:01,520 they are shutting them down. All the coal mines are shutting down. 179 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,440 And that was our lifeline. 180 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,520 Coal mines were the lifeline around here 181 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,440 and they are shutting down to people 182 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:10,500 in poverty. 183 00:19:12,100 --> 00:19:12,600 It's over. 184 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:19,360 I walk the same roads Alessandro Portelli walked three decades ago, 185 00:19:19,360 --> 00:19:25,180 and words from the opening paragraph to his book come to my mind: 186 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:31,240 “It was 1988, my fifth visit to Harlan County. 187 00:19:31,860 --> 00:19:37,360 I was on the winding road from Harlan to Evarts, driving a borrowed pickup truck, 188 00:19:37,380 --> 00:19:40,380 when I began to notice the roadkill. 189 00:19:40,580 --> 00:19:45,880 It was a dangerous road, with more than its share of adventurous drivers, 190 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,100 and it was getting dark. 191 00:19:48,100 --> 00:19:51,320 I began to think of the many ways in which death 192 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:53,200 was a presence in this land: 193 00:19:53,980 --> 00:19:55,240 the dead animals, 194 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:56,820 the road accidents, 195 00:19:57,300 --> 00:19:57,980 and of course 196 00:19:58,300 --> 00:19:59,660 the coal mines. 197 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:02,160 Guns. And black lung”. 198 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,000 Returning to New York, leaving behind Harlan 199 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:12,740 in an endless rain, 200 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:19,440 I try to put together the pieces of a remote world I only got a glimpse of. 201 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:25,000 I always wondered where all that energy came from, 202 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:29,180 the energy that lights up the luxuries of the big city.