From the Shadows of Power

Produced and directed by Jean Donohue Co-produced by Fred Johnson

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This awarding winning documentary is a powerful story set in the coalfields of Appalachia, Wales and England. In 1990 producers Donohue and Johnson have created a work that uncannily foreshadows the recent brutal growth of global capitalism and its impact on local economies and communities. From the Shadows of Power is a dramatic and critical look at the beginnings of the globalization of the coal industry and the eminent destruction of traditional coalfield communities and labor institutions. It chronicles the rise of working class women's activism and the critical role they played in the watershed events of Britain's Great Miner's Strike of 1984-85 and the U.S. miner's strike against Pittston Coal Company in 1989, two of the most significant labor conflicts in the post-war era. The documentary features community economist Helen Lewis, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, women miners from the Coal Employment Project, women from Britain's Women Against Pit Closures and the National Union Of Miners' Arthur Scargill.

Music by Rare Air and featuring original music by Ital Shur.

Selected for WNET's Independent Focus Series two years running, the Flaherty Documentary Seminar and won awards at the Athens International Film and Video Festival, Louisville Film and Video Festival, and New York University's Women One World. From the Shadows of Power was produced with support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Educational Television, the Ohio Arts Council and Media Working Group.

Appropriate for studies in:
Globalization - Coal Industry - Appalachian Studies - Women's Studies - Labor Studies - International Labor Studies - Feminism - Economics - Social Studies - American History