Born into Coal

Born into Coal was a great documentary.  I watched it twice: once as a viewer listening to a story and the second time as an analyzer breaking down each part of the documentary.  Watching as a viewer, I was immediately drawn in by the strong pathos element of the film.  The personal stories and emotional interviews with the families made the audience able to connect with these complete strangers.  I was also intrigued by the odd take on relaying this message about coal mining.  I certainly did not expect the documentary to be about a pageant but I think this is what made it unique and interesting to watch.

When I analyzed the documentary, I realized just how much B-roll was used.  It was obvious that the producer had hours of film before editing.  She started with 5-6 interviews, footage of the pageant, and footage in both households and the doctor’s office. The interviews seemed to be the backbone of this documentary because the audio from the interviews were the narration for the entire film.  Rarely was footage from the actual interview used.  The producer only used this footage when strong emotions were being shown by the interviewee. I thought this backed up the story of each person and made the interview much more powerful.  Although the producer used the audio effectively, she also used silence effectively.  When the producer wanted us to focus on the film or the words on the screen, there was silence.  This allowed the film to tell part of the story as well.  An example of this is in the beginning when the husband goes off to work and the wife watches through the window and the camera focuses on her saying a prayer.  Instead of using audio to tell the audience about the uncertainty of him coming back home for dinner, the film shows it.