Westray

Sep 14, 2001

1h 20m

★ 0.0

Overview

In this feature documentary, filmmaker Paul Cowan offers an innovative, moving account of the Westray coal mine disaster that killed 26 men in Nova Scotia on May 9, 1992. The film focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This is a film about working people everywhere whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

ONF | NFB

Westray Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Michael Jones

Narrator (voice)

Katie Malloch

Norwegian researcher Petter Amundsen claims to have deciphered a secret code hidden in legendary playwright William Shakespeare's works that reveals a map leading to the location of certain treasures. British Shakespearean scholar Robert Crumpton embarks on a mission to prove he is spectacularly wrong. (A remake of “Shakespeare: The Hidden Truth,” including new discoveries.)

7.3

Rivers and Tides

Feb 13, 2001

Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.

7.5

Harlan County U.S.A.

Jan 23, 1977

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

0.0

The Cost of Cobalt

Mar 31, 2021

In the cobalt mining areas of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), babies are being born with horrific birth defects. Scientists and doctors are finding increasing evidence of environmental pollution from industrial mining which, they believe, may be the cause of a range of malformations from cleft palate to some so serious the baby is stillborn. More than 60% of the world’s reserves of cobalt are in the DRC and this mineral is essential for the production of electric car batteries, which may be the key to reducing carbon emissions and to slowing climate change. In The Cost of Cobalt we meet the doctors treating the children affected and the scientists who are measuring the pollution. Cobalt may be part of the global solution to climate change, but is it right that Congo’s next generation pay the price with their health? Many are hoping that the more the world understands their plight, the more pressure will be put on the industry here to clean up its act.

0.0

In the Low

Feb 1, 1946

Join the working men of a northern powerhouse: on the job in Gateshead workshops and at the long wall of a Northumberland pit.

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0.0

On the Shores of Nova Scotia

Jun 28, 1947

In this Traveltalk look at Canada's province of Nova Scotia, we visit several coastal communities. The first stop is Lunenburg, where deep sea fishing and shipbuilding are the main industries. Other stops include Blue Rocks, where lobstering is an important source of income, and Peggy's Cove, known for its artist community. Here we meet artist Earl Bailly, who contracted polio at the age of 3 and learned to paint by holding the brush between his teeth.

6.7

The Devil's Miner

Nov 5, 2005

'The Devil's Miner' tells the story of 14-year-old Basilio who worships the devil for protection while working in a Bolivian silver mine to support his family.

8.0

Malartic

Feb 28, 2024

Ten years after an enormous open-pit gold mine began operations in Malartic, the hoped-for economic miracle is nothing more than a mirage. Filmmaker Nicolas Paquet explores the glaring contrast between the town’s decline and the wealth of the mining company, along with the mechanisms of an opaque decision-making system in which ordinary people have little say. Part anthropological study, part investigation into the corridors of power, Malartic addresses the fundamental issue of sustainable and fair land management.

5.0

The Last Glacier

Nov 16, 1984

A docudrama on the closing of the town of Schefferville. When Raoul loses his job at the mine because the operations are ending, he's been settled there for ten years with Carmen and their son. They're now forced to leave the town, leaving behind the traces of an ephemeral prosperity.

6.5

Gold Blooded

Feb 7, 2018

Dakota Fred Hurt, Dustin Hurt and the Richardson brothers battle nature, time, and death itself to strike gold under a huge waterfall. This film documents what Fred and Dustin were up to since they left Discovery's GOLD RUSH, and it's the prequel to Discovery's new show starring this team called GOLD RUSH: WHITE WATER.

6.5

Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake

Sep 30, 2007

In the 1940's American-born Willard MacDonald jumped his troop train heading to WWII. Fearing authorities he lived as a hermit deep in the northern wilderness of Nova Scotia, Canada for more than 60 years inspiring folklore for generations.

7.0

The Wild

May 19, 2019

Newly into addiction recovery, an urgent threat emerges to spur filmmaker, Mark Titus back to the Alaskan wilderness - where the people of Bristol Bay and the world's last intact wild salmon runs face devastation if a massive copper mine is constructed.

0.0

The Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area?

Nov 15, 1983

Documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining, and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.

7.9

The Concert for Bangladesh

Mar 23, 1972

A film about the first benefit rock concert when major musicians performed to raise relief funds for the poor of Bangladesh. The Concert for Bangladesh was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide.

0.0

Under the Cloud

Aug 30, 2023

An investigation into the unfolding history of nuclear testing, uranium mining, and nuclear waste disposal on indigenous lands in the US. It raises the voices of those who witnessed and experienced the consequences of nuclear colonialism and those who still resist.

0.0

Mountain of Gold

Apr 6, 2025

Gold fever has gripped northern Niger. In search of the precious metal, and despite the risks, an army of researchers has invaded the sites of interest. While camps are set up and dismantled as rumours of new leads spread, Moussa and his companions are banking on the Ikazan vein.

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0.0

The Beaver

Jan 1, 1935

Documentary that details the daily habits of beavers and their interaction with the ecosystem at large. Filmed mostly in Digby County, Nova Scotia.

0.0

Review 34th Year No. 7

Jan 1, 1981

A West Yorkshire story of rewilding wetlands in a landscape once dominated by deep coal mining.

8.0

Once We Were Pitmen

Feb 29, 2024

Black dust, shrill metallic noises, dark tunnels, muscular bodies – all that is the past. At the end of 2018, extraction of coal throughout Germany came to an end. That same year, the voices of the emerging climate protest movement Fridays for Future grew louder. Against the backdrop of these media and socio-political events, the film follows five miners on their tragic, humorous and heartwarming search for a new role in life.

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0.0

Glimpses of New Scotland

Aug 30, 1947

Glimpses of Nova Scotia, from Halifax to Digby. The off-screen narration cites history, tradition, the contributions of Scottish and French immigrants, the strategic importance of Nova Scotia's coast, each village's churches, the stained glass windows at St. John's in Lunenburg, the Acadians' annual apple crop, Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal), a history of wars between France and England, and the tides of the Bay of Fundy.

Westray

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Westray Trailers