In memory of the land and people

Duration: 50

Year Published: 1977

Creator: Robert Gates

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: A powerful anti-strip mining film constructed in visual image and soundtrack from found material. A film without narration, the background sound is provided by Bela Bartok's resonant, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the protest songs of Mike Kline and Rich Kirby and dialog with the people and operators in the stripped regions. Revealing the immensity of the machines which are ravaging the land in the U.S., the film becomes a surreal voyage into the world of strip mining from Appalachia to the Rocky Mountains.