Catalog Search Results
Series
Summary
James McParlan is an operative working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who is hired by a major coal company to infiltrate and expose an underground terrorist organization, the "Molly Maguires". The Mollies operate within the improverished mining communities of Pennsylvania and are mostly Irish emigrants. McParlan is selected to infiltrate the organization to pose as a new member, but it quickly becomes apparent that the working conditions are...
2) Still life
Summary
After a town is completely destroyed by a flood, the residents must try to rebuild their homes, the town, and their lives.
Series
Studio classic volume 3
Summary
A man looks back on his life as a boy in a small Welsh mining town. His reminiscences reveal the disintegration of his closely knit family, while capturing the sentiments and issues of their time.
Series
Summary
At the beginning of the 20th century, coal was the engine of American industrial progress. Nearly three quarters of a million men across the country spent ten or twelve hours a day underground in coal mines. The Mine Wars brings to life the struggle that turned the coalfields of southern West Virginia into a blood-soaked war zone where basic constitutional rights and freedoms were violently contested.
5) Mine 9
Summary
Two miles into the earth, nine Appalachian miners struggle to survive after a methane explosion leaves them with one hour of oxygen.
9) Billy Elliot
Formats
Summary
Eleven-year-old Billy does not like the brutal boxing lessons at school, so he falls for the girls' ballet lessons instead. His family doesn't approve, so he must train in secret.
Summary
A modern-day fairy tale of a young boy who exchanges boxing gloves for ballet shoes. Billy's story is set during the 1980s miners' strike in northern England, where his determination inspires an entire community. This is a story of self-discovery, determination, love and hope. Based on the beloved film and winner of ten Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Summary
Definitely, maybe: Will Hayes is a 30-something Manhattan dad who is in the midst of a divorce. His 10 year old daughter, Maya, starts to question him about his life before marriage. Maya wants to know absolutely everything about how her parents met and fell in love. Will's story begins years earlier when, as a young, starry-eyed aspiring politician, he moves to New York in order to work on the Clinton campaign. Will attempts a "PG" version of his...
12) Matewan
Summary
Miners in the town of Matewan, West Virginia, form an uneasy alliance with a union organiser, in a strike against crippling conditions and pay. With support enlisted from the Italian migrants and blacks imported as scab labour, their clash with "The Company" led to a bloody massacre and the birth of the union movement in Virginia.
Series
Summary
"Inspired by real events, The Indian Doctor is the award winning BBC drama that is a warm and humorous fish-out-of-water story about a dedicated doctor who moves to the UK with ambitions to work in a top London surgery, only to find himself practicing in a small Welsh village. It's now 1966, three years after Dr. Prem Sharma and his wife Kamini's arrival and in their different ways, they have both become a part of the community. However, their lives...
Series
Criterion collection volume 334
Summary
Chronicles the 1973 Harlan County, Kentucky coal miners' strike against the operators of the Brookside mine and the Duke Power Company, which resulted from the company's refusal to honor the national contract of the United Mine Workers of America when the miners joined the union.
15) Brassed off!
Series
Summary
A retired miner leads the Grimley Colliery Band, the brass band that the town's miners play in after hours. His hope is to lead them to victory in a national brass band competition, even though they are worried by rumors the mine may close. They acquire a new musician when the granddaughter of a former bandsman comes back to town-- assigned to help determine whether to make the mine closing definite. A story about two old friends and ex-lovers whose...
Summary
In the 1870's, twenty Irish immigrants suspected of belonging to a secret terrorist organization, the Molly Maguires, were executed in the coal mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Their crime was the murder of sixteen men, mainly mine officials. Ever since, a debate has raged over who the Mollies were.
18) Billy Elliot
Summary
Eleven-year-old Billy does not like the brutal boxing lessons at school, so he falls for the girls' ballet lessons instead. His family doesn't approve, so he must train in secret.
