Born Into Coal

The documentary Born into Coal is a very good documentary. I really liked how research was written on the moving picture. It showed that the maker of this documentary was prepared. However, at first I wasn’t quite sure what the documentary was about. It was talking about the pageant and the miners and teenage girl a wanted to go off to college and I was a bit confused. However, once she won the pageant and stated she wanted to stay here and fight for coal, it brought the entire documentary together. I wished they would have only stuck to the first family and not brought in the second family, even though the second family expressed two everyday concerns for coal miners (explosions and black lung). This documentary used a lot of pathos by showing us the miners’ families and what they work so hard for. The argument of this documentary I believe is to consider both sides of the story. On one side, we see all the terrible things that happen in the mine (black lung, explosions, how hard they work, etc.). Then on the other side we see that this is how these miners support their families and how lost they would be without the mine.

The story board for this documentary probably consisted of the following parts: Giving the teenage girl’s opinion of her hometown before the pageant, showing her family life with a father who is a miner, showing the other family and talking about the explosion, the risk of black lung, showing the teenage girl winning the pageant, and finally showing how this opportunity made her want to stand up for coal and all the miners in her state. These senses tell the story of how you must stand up for what you believe in. Overall, this documentary was successful in relaying this message.