Born into Coal

While “Born into Coal” utilizes both human interest and standard narrative styles, the main style that stood out to me was that of a human interest piece.  The documentary showed the story of a common coal mining family in West Virginia whose daughter was in a pageant for the title of West Virginia Coal Queen while also highlighting the life of another family in West Virginia affected by a coal mine collapse across the state.  Though following the daughter, Ariana, to her pageant was a standard narrative, the heart of the piece was a human interest piece on the effects of coal mining on the miner and his family.  The father works hard in the mines every day in order to provide for his family while his wife worries and prays for him and his daughter takes classes in hopes that if something bad occurs she can make an effort to help him.  Though the life they live is difficult and the money in meager, the family continues to life a somewhat normal life.

              The shots that really stood out to me were the differences in the hands between the father and the daughter – the father’s hands were permanently dirty with his nails stained black while his daughter and wife had pristine, fake manicures as they did not have to work the hard job in the mine.  I believe that the shots taken are very effective in showing the audience that hard, physical labor takes a toll on the body that is often visible, and that hard work turns into the everyday things the worker can provide for his family, such as the plethora of jeans held in the perfectly manicured hands of his daughter.  Though the life of a coal miner is treacherous and often deadly, the reward is seeing his family happy and thriving because he could provide for his family and I think these shots aid in making that point.