Program 5: 'A Beast Touch the Mountain' - Appalachia vs Pipeline Company

A BEAST TOUCH THE MOUNTAIN: MOUNTAIN VALLEY PIPELINE AND THE FIGHT FOR APPALACHIA - Filmed throughout the hauntingly beautiful Appalachian region of Southwest Virginia and West Virginia the documentary follows a band of women on Bent Mountain, Virginia who have fought for a decade to protect their land and their way of life against a billion-dollar corporation that has sought to build a 303-mile mega-pipeline across the Appalachian Mountains.

Through the judicial system and civil disobedience the women of Bent Mountain, along with thousands of others, struggle against the corrupt business practices and political payoffs of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a company that has skirted environmental laws and enlisted politicians to do their bidding to take people’s land and construct an arguably unnecessary and environmentally destructive pipeline that enriches a handful of CEOs and their political allies in Washington on both sides of the aisle. The timely film is an emotional and unflinching look at how money, politics and greed affect everyday Americans in an increasingly corporate-dominated world and how, despite the odds, just showing up for each other is winning. (1 hr 24m, 2025, Director: James Mottern)

Short to precede:

I'M GOING TO BE A DIAMOND SOMEDAY - Frank Newsome was born in Pike County, KY in 1942 and was one of twenty-two children who grew-up in the Old Regular Baptist Church. Following in the footsteps of his father, Frank worked as a coal miner and, after almost two decades in the mines, contracted black lung and was forced to retire.

I’m Going to Be A Diamond Someday combines an intimate interview with Frank Newsome with footage captured throughout the towns and coalfields of central Appalachia; both before and after the catastrophic floods of 2022. Issues of family, faith, community, and politics are explored through the realities of economics, industry, and climate change. (27m, 2026, Director: Jeremy Drummond and David Poolman)