Coming soon: Knox film in the works
Trailer of the documentary on the ’59 mine disaster, being filmed by 2 Valley natives, will be screened locally.
By Jack Smiles
jsmiles@psdispatch.com Times Leader Staff Writer
Two men who grew up in the Wyoming Valley will have a public airing of a 90-minute documentary they are making on the Knox Mine Disaster.
David Brocca poses with Jack Scanella, the cinematographer of the original Knox Mine Disaster footage. Brocca and his cousin, Albert Brocca, are working on a documentary about The Knox Mine Disaster.
Albert Brocca researches old Knox-related articles. He and cousin David Brocca are making a documentary on the mine disaster
After graduating from Wyoming Area High School, Dave Brocca was a Penn State film major, moved to Los Angeles and got into the movie business.
Brocca, of West Pittston, interned at IFILM.com and has been in Los Angeles ever since.
He and his cousin, Albert Brocca, have teamed up to produce and direct, and eventually established their own company, Pitch Films.
Over the last four years they have been working on a 90-minute, feature-length documentary titled “The Knox Mine Disaster: The End of Anthracite.”
Now, in conjunction with Mining History Week, Albert Brocca will screen a trailer of the movie at three venues:
• Today at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of the McGowan School of Business at King’s College after the Inaugural Msgr. John J. Curran Memorial Lecture -- “The Knox Mine Disaster: The Anthracite Mineworker and The Culture of Corruption” -- by professor Robert P. Wolensky and William A. Hastie.
• On Saturday Brocca and Wolensky will present the trailer at the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton for the 53rd Anniversary of the Knox disaster.
• On Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Earth Conservancy Building, Main Street, Ashley, in front of the Huber Breaker, the trailer will be screened for the Huber Breaker Preservation Society. Attorney F. Charles Petrillo will speak on: “Last Shift: The End of Deep-Coal Mining in the Wyoming Valley 1959-1974.”
Chance meeting
The idea for the documentary sprang from a chance meeting at Brocca’s great grandmother’s funeral when his uncle, Bill Best, the president of the Huber Breaker Preservation Society, introduced Brocca to Wolensky, who became a consultant and backer of the movie.
They talked about anthracite history and Dave was fascinated, especially by the 1959 breakthrough of the Susquehanna River that ended deep mining in the Wyoming Valley.
“The Knox is a fantastic story, and there are still people around today to tell it. I read Bob’s book and Jeff Goodell’s ‘Big Coal’ and I was in,” he said.
Step one was an interview with Wolensky.
“Bob recommended people we should interview, and once we got going, one interview just led to the next. It was very exciting, kind of like unraveling a puzzle. We have about 12 hours of interview footage,” Brocca said.
The Broccas flew home twice a year with their camera gear to shoot the interviews.
Among the subjects are the late Steve Lukasik, the first photographer on the scene, and his brother Bill; Jack Scanella, who filmed the disaster; Bill Hastie, a mine inspector at the scene; half brothers John Gadomski, who died last year, and Bucky Mazar, who were working in the mine, and Audrey Calvey.
Story of survivors
Dave Brocca said that while the movie is the story of a disaster, it’s also about survival.
“It’s a story of survivors. Not just the men who got out alive, but also the families that had to cope with the loss of a loved one and a community that had to survive the loss of over 10,000 jobs once the mines closed.”
Previously unknown film footage has been found since WVIA produced a documentary on the Knox in 1984.
Brocca said that while video of what was happening above ground exists, he and Albert want to depict what was happening down in the mine.
“We’ve all seen the raging vortex of the Susquehanna. I’d like to show what happened underground. To do the film justice, we’d like to do a re-enactment of what the miners experienced underground. We’re looking to raise funds to achieve this,” he said.
The cousins have a campaign going at kickstarter.com, where anyone can pledge to the project with a credit card.
Log on to
http://www.knoxminedisaster.com or contact Dave and Albert Brocca directly at
info@pitchfilms.com.
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