Appalachian Media Institute

07/02/2025

Our SDI interns recently spent an evening at Cowan Community Center filming one of the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School concerts and interviewing staff member Yoko Nogami. The results were a short film you can watch on our YouTube channel: https://loom.ly/uIgkPdg

Thank you Cowan for letting our interns film your event!

06/30/2025

Our SDI interns out and about filming with AMI Program Manager Tommy Anderson 🎞️💚

📷: Oakley Fugate

06/17/2025

The 2025 Summer Documentary Institute is in full swing, folks! Here’s some behind the scenes photos from the first few days with our new interns 💚

06/17/2025

The 2025 Summer Documentary Institute is in full swing, folks! Here’s some behind the scenes photos from the first few days with our new interns 💚

06/09/2025

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Finding q***r community in a heteronormative society can be especially challenging for LGBTQIA+ individuals in rural areas like Central Appalachia. The 2021 film "Out and Out: Finding Identity in Southwest Virginia" explores this struggle through the voices and experiences of Southwest Virginians.

Watch "Out and Out" on YouTube here: https://loom.ly/XURkMrU

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, "Out and Out: Finding Identity in Southwest Virginia," Jesse Frye, 2021.

06/02/2025

Happy from all of us at the Appalachian Media Institute! ❤️🏳️‍🌈

05/30/2025

Discover the simplistic charm and beauty of traditional Appalachian music by checking out the 2016 AMI film "My Kind of Music," featuring interviews with several local old-time musicians, such as Gwen Johnson. 💚🎵

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page: https://loom.ly/6pN9T2U

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “My Kind of Music,” Eli Bedel, 2016.

05/29/2025

The 2016 AMI film "My Kind of Music" explores the popularization of old time music and the impact this has had on the regional style in eastern Kentucky.

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page: https://loom.ly/6pN9T2U

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “My Kind of Music,” Eli Bedel, 2016.

05/23/2025

"There wasn’t that much made about it at the time.... I just didn’t have the foresight to understand really what might happen eventually, and now I’m 72 years old and I have black lung. -Stanley Sturgill, "Dying Breed," 2017.

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page: https://loom.ly/8ha2cEA

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “Dying Breed,” Lauren Rose, Jaydon Tolliver, Ben Whaley-Jones, and Shaylan Clark, 2017.

05/22/2025

Living with black lung disease is a frightening reality for thousands of coal miners. Meanwhile, lawmakers have tried to block funding for black lung treatments and benefits. This 2017 film was created to bring awareness to this disease that has gone unnoticed on a national scale. Viewers will learn about the challenges that victims and their families face, along with insights from professionals in the field.

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page: https://loom.ly/8ha2cEA

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “Dying Breed,” Lauren Rose, Jaydon Tolliver, Ben Whaley-Jones, and Shaylan Clark, 2017.

05/15/2025

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303 mile long natural gas pipeline that is being constructed in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. The 2021 AMI film “Protect What You Love” examines the pipeline’s impact on the land and people of Appalachia and why they fight so hard to protect what they love.

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page: https://loom.ly/WcmF7SA

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “Protect What You Love,” Mia Lazar, 2021.

05/09/2025

"They're the voiceless... I just like to help things that really can't help themself." -Bettina Vanover-Hagans (on caring for animals)

Watch the full film on the Appalshop YouTube page here: https://loom.ly/6LBnLbE

🎥: Appalachian Media Institute, “Cruelty Knows No Species,” Dustin Hall, Monica Webb, Jade Slone, 2013.