To commemorate the 39th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood, filmmaker Mimi Picketing will present her award winning film on the disaster on the campus of Appalachian State University the evening of March 2nd. 

Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man is described by the Library of Congress as a “powerful documentary” that “represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region.” It poignantly portrays the impact that the February 1972 collapse of a coal-waste dam had on the West Virginia communities it devastated.  A wall of sludge, debris and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless.  The Pittston Company, owners of the dam, maintained that the disaster was “an act of God.” Interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizens’ groups and officials of the Pittston Company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing destruction.

Filmmaker Mimi Pickering produced films for the nationally recognized Appalshop media arts center in Whitesburg Kentucky.  Pickering’s documentaries often feature women as principle storytellers and explore the efforts of grassroots people to deal with community problems as they work for social change.  Pickering is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Kentucky Arts Council Fellowships, as well as media grants from the American Film Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Her award-winning documentaries include Chemical Valley (1991), Dreadful Memories (1988) and Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song (2002).

In 2005, The Library of Congress named Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man to the National Film Registry as a "culturally, historically, and aesthetically" significant motion picture.  The National Film Registry list is designed to reflect the full breadth and diversity of America's film heritage, thus increasing public awareness of the richness of the American  cinema and the need for its preservation.

Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act Of Man will screen at 7:30pm Wednesday March 2nd in the Great Hall of the Living Learning Center on the campus of Appalachian State University.  For more information please contact Tom Hansell at University Documentary Film Services:  828-262-7730 or hansellts@appstate.edu