Hi everybody, we’ve now released “Moundsville” online! You can rent or buy the movie here. We’ve also released a bonus feature where I explain why we made this movie. We’re still figuring out how the life of an independent movie works. But there is one thing I know for sure: We need YOUR help. Please, please share those links on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, reddit, and anywhere else you hang out online. Tell your friends about “Moundsville”. Recommend that your local theatre book us. We want the movie to be part of a larger conversation. Feel free to email or call me anytime if you have questions. More soon! Meanwhile, thank you again for your support. John.

America’s conversation about its shared economy, politics and culture doesn’t have to be divisive. The starting point for a new kind of dialogue is a truthful reckoning with our past, from thousands of years ago, through 20th century boom and sticky bust, to the present of the gas economy and service jobs, and to the wild, open-ended future. By telling the biography of a classic American town — Moundsville, WV, pop. 8,000 — that has all these important elements, in the words of the most thoughtful people we found in a year of traveling there, we hope to lay at least one brick in the foundation for this new kind of conversation.

It’s the holiday season, and I’ve just arrived at my parents in Brussels, where I lived most of my life before moving to Pittsburgh in 2011. When I came to Western Pennsylvania that year to cover steel and mining for the Wall Street Journal, I was drawn to places that explain America to me. I’m the child of expatriate classical musicians who settled in Brussels in the 1970s, and when I was young America was a distant symphony. I knew the high notes: baseball, jazz, candy. I didn’t know much about things like slavery, the turmoil of the 1960s, or post-industrial decline. In this decade, I’ve been drawn to cities and towns that explain America, like Detroit, Dayton or DC. It was that curiosity that drew me off of I-70 on a summer day in 2013 and into Moundsville. That journey led to making this movie with Dave Bernabo, a prolific Pittsburgh filmmaker. Saturday, Dec. 15 is a big day in the process. We’ll release the full version of “Moundsville” online, for renting and buying. You can even preorder, and here’s the link for that. We don’t have a distribution deal, so we’re spreading the word with screenings, online marketing and word of mouth. Please help spread the word! Thanks! John

Besides the Jan. 17 Pittsburgh premiere at the Carnegie Museum of Art, we have more screenings in the works. We’re in talks to premiere at a mid-town venue in New York City on Jan. 14., and Wheeling at two different locations early in the year. And of course, the online release is coming up on Dec. 15. It’s exciting. We’re looking forward to showing people the movie, and hearing the reactions of people outside Appalachia to this very American story.

What a great evening in Moundsville on Friday night! 170 people attended the premiere of “Moundsville” last night — at the Strand in Moundsville. It cost $5, the seats were comfortable and the lobby smelled like popcorn. And, a bit to my surprise, they seemed to really like it! We got some laughs, and, at the end, applause. “We didn’t know what to expect, because, you know, big city journalists,” one lady told us during the Q&A. “But you were balanced, and we appreciate that.” For me, this project has always been about trying to tell the story of this key drama — the American small town — in a way that spoke authentically to people who live in places like Moundsville, and was also true and journalistically sound. Along the way, thanks mostly to actual filmmaker David Bernabo, we’ve made what appears to be a pretty good movie! We have deals with the Carnegie Museum of Art (Jan. 17) and Towngate in Wheeling, and are talking to colleges, churches and other organizations. And it will be available online on Vimeo Dec. 15. You can pre-order here. Stay tuned — lots more to come!

Tonight marks a new chapter in my fascination with Moundsville, which started in 2013 when I pulled off I-70 on my way back from a coal mine. I hope the movie succeeds in its goal in illuminating the nature of small town economies, capitalism, America, Western civilization… And that it makes people think and laugh! You can buy tickets here. Doors at the Strand theatre in Moundsville open at 630pm. Movie starts at 7pm. See you there!

Al Olson has a nice write-up of “Moundsville” in the The Intelligencer. “A documentary featuring Moundsville was chosen to represent the archetypal post-industrial American town,” he writes.  The best part, though is this:

Moundsville City Council began its Tuesday meeting by enthusing about the movie. Mayor Allen Hendershot expressed a desire to see those who attend the meeting in the theater during the debut.

That’s cool. I hope they like the movie!

 

We haven’t been sure how much media interest there’d be in the story of a post-industrial West Virginia river town. After all, there’s been so much done on the decline of Manufacturing, USA, from Michael Moore’s movie Roger&Me, to George Packer’s book The Unwinding. Why would anybody want to watch another sad story of decline? I think our story is different, and goes to places nobody else has. The mound is a unique, mystical, powerful character. The story of the Marx toy plant might deserve its own movie. We cover the nuances of the booming 50s, and of decline. And we have cool, quirky, funny, smart characters. So I’ve been beating this drum for the last few weeks, telling everybody I could about the movie, and sending out press releases. With the premiere on for this Friday, 7pm, at the Strand, in Moundsville, interest finally picked up this week. I spent part of Monday with Nora Edinger of Weelunk.com, a cool Wheeling, WV-based start-up. She wrote a very nice piece that ran his morning. The Tribune-Review pubbed its story, more of an interview. Then, by evening, it was time to click on WTOV9’s website to watch the feature on the evening news. After 20 years of journalism, it is weird to be on the other side of the fence, answering questions from reporters. I am excited that people are interested in the subject matter. I’m hoping they watch the movie and realize that we have a deeper story to tell. Just two more sleeps until the premiere! –John

I drove down to Moundsville this week  ahead of the premiere on Dec. 7. I went to hand out fliers, meet with Sadie Crow, manager of the Strand theatre, and talk to some of the people I’ve met over the past year. “Are you the fella who’s made that movie?” an older man asked me when I ducked into his store. We had an interesting conversation about whether discussion in the movie of the town’s richer day would evoke pride or sadness in locals. (Both.) The theatre is cool. I imagined the thousands of magical evenings that have happened there before: concerts, movies, Shakespeare, one-woman shows. Outside, the snow covered the mound in a soft sheen of white. It was lovely. I took the picture below with an iPhone7 — in color.

John W. Miller

 

In case you missed it, Buzzfeed last week published an essay I wrote about our project. The headline might come off as a bit pessimistic, and I hope that doesn’t distract from what we’re trying to do, which is start a new kind of conversation about our economy and politics. If the truth of the American rural economy is a land of Wal-Marts and prisons and hospitals, with $12/hour service jobs, then no amount of sloganeering can change that. If that’s not the world we want, we should talk about what we do want, and how to get there. And, we think, telling the story of how we got here is a good way to start. –John–