Published: January 8, 2019 |

David and Albert Brocca.
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Charcoal amination by artist Benjamin Mackeycreated for the documentary.
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Wyoming Valley was once an epicenter for anthracite mining in northeastern Pennsylvania. But on January 22, 1959, all that changed when 12 men died in a tragedy that would put an end to deep mining in the region.

Sixty years later, filmmakers Albert and David Brocca have compiled an extensive set of records, interviews and footage to tell the tale of the disaster.

“This is a feature-length documentary on the Knox Mine disaster, which was the last disaster here in the area that basically ended coal/anthracite mining in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Albert Brocca, a graduate of East Stroudsburg South High School, said.

On that fateful day, workers for the Knox Coal Company had been excavating an area beneath the Susquehanna River. The force and weight of the icy waters broke through a thin layer of rock that separated the river bed and the excavation, dumping ten billion gallons of water into the mine and surrounding mines.

The Broccas, originally from Monroe and Luzerne Counties, became interested in the devastating tale, and were inspired to bring the stories of the survivors, casualties and their families to life by crafting their documentary, “Knox Mine Disaster.”

“My cousin, David Brocca, directed it and I produced it,” Brocca said. “We met an author who wrote the book about the disaster in the Wyoming area, and he knew that we were filmmakers out in Los Angeles, and he thought it would be an interesting story for us to pursue.”

Over the course of several years, Albert and David would trek home to northeastern Pennsylvania to spend the holidays with friends and families. While in the area, they would reach out to miners and families who lived through the Knox disaster. A Facebook page led to more interest and momentum.

“We started getting more people and relatives saying, ‘Hey, my grandfather was in the mines as well, and it would be great if you interviewed him,’” Brocca said. “After a couple of years, we had a whole plethora of great footage and great stories that we started to edit together.”

From there, the team was able to connect with a man who had filmed the infamous whirlpool that opened up in the river. Engineers were attempting to plug the hole and curtail the damage, and figured that driving some train into the whirlpool could work.

“You can see in the documentary these old train cars being driven off the tracks into the whirlpool, being obliterated and sucked down into the abyss,” Brocca said. “We were able to find the original film reels in the basement of WBRE, and we took them back to California to the University of Southern California Archive Department, and they restored all these 1950s film reels, and actually transcoded them into high definition for us.”

At this point, Brocca said, it seemed as if the recipe was nearly complete. They had a great collection of primary source interviews and restored footage from the disaster itself. But something was missing, something that would make the story pop. Something that would grab the viewers’ attention and hold it throughout the story. The solution was a creative and thematically relevant bit of artistry.

“What we decided to do then is we met a charcoal artist named Ben Mackey, and he did beautiful charcoal renditions of a lot of the stories that the miners told us in the film,” Brocca said. “We were able to take these charcoal drawings and animate them.”

As the days wind down to the premier, the Broccas are looking forward to telling the strange tale of a historical milestone that changed the very fabric of their community. Being able to employ their talents to educate the world about a monumental moment in their hometown history made for an incredible opportunity to connect the past, present and future of one little town.

“People would come over here to the United States from Poland, Italy, Ireland, and the only job that was available at the time was working in the mines,” Brocca said. “So, a lot of our ancestry is in the coal region. It was really rewarding, it was a great project to actually bring all of those old stories back to the modern times.”

Knox Mine Disaster will premier at 7 p.m. on January 22, 2019 at the Kirby Center for the Creative Arts at Wyoming Seminary. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and admission is $15.

You can purchase tickets, HERE

Source: Pocono Record

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