Cheshire, Ohio
1h 14m
Directed by Eve Morgenstern • Documentary • 2017 • 75 minutes
Filmed over a decade, CHESHIRE, OHIO follows a community devastated by coal, starting with American Electric Power's buyout and bulldozing of this Ohio town after exposing residents to harmful emissions. Years later, the film returns to the now almost emptied town to follow the case of 77 plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against AEP for cancer and other diseases they developed from working unprotected at the plant's coal ash landfill.
Told poetically with beautiful archival footage and photographs, CHESHIRE, OHIO provides an intimate look at the demise of one American town sacrificed for power, and the continued cost of coal to us all. The voices of residents, environmental lawyers and others paint a complex, layered story of a quintessential American town devastated by industry in a state considered a battleground in the 'war on coal.'
"A vital film...shows firsthand the human cost of dirty energy. It is a harrowing and compelling story that hammers home the point: coal kills, fossil fuel companies care more about profit than people, and now more than ever, we need to pay attention to the true stories of our frontline communities." —Bruce Nilles, Beyond Coal Campaign, Sierra Club