Westray
Description
May 9, 1992. The Westray mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, explodes, instantly killing all 26 men working underground. Mining coal in Pictou County is notoriously dangerous. It claimed the lives of 650 men in the last 100 years, the same number that died fighting in both world wars. But Westray was supposed to be different: a high-tech operation that would finally make coal mining safe. Westray is a brilliant, innovative documentary that re-creates some of the Westray disaster's most harrowing moments. It focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents, and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This film reaches beyond Westray. It's also about working people everywhere--whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.
Runtime
80 min
Subjects
Geography
Genre
Date of Publication
2001
Database
Alexander Street
Direct Link
Similar Films
To the light. The dark days of China's coal miners
The coal miner's day
The widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
The shaft
Last pit in the Rhondda. The final cut
The Legacy of coal
The miners' hymns
The enemy within
American Experience. Mine wars. Season 28, Episode 1
Grumant. An island of communism