Crude Economy: COAL FOR LIFE
Programme 1: Coal for Life
The mining and processing of coal was a major motor for economic progress in Europe. It not only propelled the modernization of life in the industrial age, but shaped the identity of whole communities and towns, landscapes and regions. The programme which features some classics of the silent film era relates the heyday and fall of the European mining industry, to the theme of crisis and speculation.
A Day In The Life of A Coal Miner, Kineto Production Company (GB 1910 | 9:00 min)
Sponsored by L.N.W. Railway, this early film provides a picture of coal mining at the beginning of the 20th century. It draws parallels between the hard physical nature of the coal miners’ work—much of the above-ground labour is done by women—and the luxury of those who rely on their toil.
Börsenkönigin (The Queen of The Stock Exchange), Edmund Edel (Germany 1916 | 52:00 min)
Live Piano score by Wim van Tuyl
Silent film star Asta Nielsen plays the proprietor of a copper mine on the verge of ruin. After the plant manager has traced a new copper vein, she buys the worthless shares and therewith secures the finances of the mine and herself. In her private life, however, she is less lucky.
Inflation, Hans Richter (Germany 1928 | 3:00 min)
Richter’s films of the 1920s, although abstract and surrealist in style, express a strong sense of reality. Inflation deals with the disastrous spiral of inflation during the world economic crisis that made the savings of Everyman melt away.
Last Men Standing, Sasha Maja Djurkovic (GB 2005 | 17:00 min)
In 1994 the Tower Colliery Coal Mine in Wales was bought by the miners themselves after the government had closed it for economic reasons. The pit continued to work profitably until 2008. While the miners speak of their pride and dignity, the teenagers sniff glue, lacking any future in the region.