The Last Mountain, a film by Bill Haney, starkly portrays the lives of people living around Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. It opens with a black hawk gliding gracefully above the Appalachian forest canopy. Instrumental folk music plays, setting the stage for a peaceful recounting of country life in the American south. Looming in…

It is 9 am and traffic is crawling on the 101 freeway…and on the 405, and on the 118. Sunshine pours through the windshield, turning your mind to thoughts of walking through the Santa Monica Mountains and biking down to the beach. Minutes are ticking by, marked only by the occasional horn honking loudly behind…