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Buffalo Creek Revisited
Directed by Mimi Pickering
Color, 31 minutes, 1985 
FILM TRANSCRIPT-
"People face death of friends and relatives, but when everything that was once familiar to them is also gone, the trauma is doubled. I think Buffalo Creek stands as a symbol of how important community is."
Beth Spence, journalist, Logan Co., WV in Buffalo Creek Revisited
"Every morning to us was like Sunday morning a smile, a "good morning"...that meant so much to us. We don't get that no more. It's lost. Now we get vacant stares. We get frowns. We get worries."
Ruth Morris, flood survivor, in Buffalo Creek Revisited
Filmed ten years after the flood, Buffalo Creek Revisited looks at the second disaster on Buffalo Creek, in which the survivors' efforts to rebuild the communities shattered by the flood are thwarted by government insensitivity and a century old pattern of corporate control of the region's land and resources. Through the statements of survivors, planners, politicians, psychologists, and community activists, the film explores the psychology of disaster, the value of community, and the paradox of a poor people living in a rich land.
"Captures in gripping detail how the effects of a disaster like the Buffalo Creeek flood can continue to haunt the sturdiest of people even years later."
Kai Erikson, Sociologist at Yale University and Author, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood
"A very perceptive study of the effects of community disaster and dislocation and of the inability of governments at all levels to deal with it" Choice
"A valuable teaching tool...for discussions of the importance of land and community in Appalachia, the power and arrogance of the coal industry, and the insensitivity of government bureaucracy."
Stephen Fisher, Professor of Political Science, Emory & Henry College
"A powerful and sensitive treatment of a lingering human tragedy."
Library Journal
"An eye opening revelation." BooklistFestivals and Screenings
American Film Festival Finalist
Athens International Film Festival Merit Award
Women in the Director's Chair Award Winner
Sinking Creek Film Celebration Award Winner
National Housing Video and Film Festival
American Film Institute Theater, Washington, D.C.
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute
West Virginia Film Festival ‘90 - Screening
Western Psychological Association Convention
Kentucky Educational Television
WSWP/Beckley, WV
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