Devils Oven to Show at Athens Film Festival

The Devil's Oven: The Fire in the Heart of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds, a documentary on our own region will be part of the Athens Film Festival this year. The documentary will be presented at Stuart's Opera House on April 26, at 7 p.m. The Devil's Oven previously won the Katharine Knight Award at The Earth Vision 10th Annual International Environmental Film Festival in Santa Cruz, California and was most recently presented in a sold out screening at the Cleveland Film Festival. This is a chance for our members who missed seeing it earlier to be able to attend a viewing in their own area.

Cleveland film maker Valda Lewis released her one hour documentary video entitled Devil's Oven: The Fire in the Heart of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds at Little Cities of Black Diamonds Day, October 2007. The film is narrated by Columbus television news personality Bob Singleton.
Lewis embarked on the documentary over two years ago after reading an account of the underground mine fires still burning near New Straitsville here in the Little Cities microregion. The fires were set in protest during the nationally significant Hocking Valley Mine Strike of 1884-85 that resulted in landmark changes in labor union influence in the United States. Not only does the video document that strike and the nationally significant role of the miners of the Little Cities, it brings the viewer up to the current day in the Little Cities microregion where the legacy of the Hocking Valley Boom Mining Era lives on. Interviews with local citizens and organizational leaders are featured. Support for the research and production of Devil's Oven was provided by the Ohio Humanities Council and the Gund Foundation.