Born Into Coal

     This short documentary, Born Into Coal, leans more towards human-interest than narrative. It talks about how coal mining is such a big part of some of the family’s lives in West Virginia. It also speaks of the coal queen pageant and how it represents the pride of coal-mining families. The documentary is a human-interest documentary because it follows the families into their home and expresses their feelings about the coal mining industry.

     These two shots really stood out for me because they show just how incorporated 

their job in coal mining is aligned with other aspects of their life. In the first photo, the coal miner is watching his daughter in the pageant and his fingers are stained with the coal dust from where he works.No matter where he goes or what he does, he can not escape from what he does for a living. 

     In the second photo, it reemphasizes the theme of working in coal being included in other aspects of life, it also speaks to how a strong sense of family is reinforced in coal-miners home lives. The apparent normalcy of the scene in which the shot is taken is slightly disturbing; it appears that the family does not find the fact that the father is covered with coal from head-to-toe in coal dust at dinner the least bit odd. In regards to recreating the first shot, I could recreate it without much difficulty, however, recreating the second shot, while not impossible, would definitely be difficult to do.