KINGSTON — David and Albert Brocca, first cousins with deep roots in the Wyoming Valley, don’t want people to forget about the darkest day in local coal mining history – the Knox Mine Disaster.
Since 2008, the filmmakers have been working on a documentary about the tragedy that claimed 12 lives.
After 11 years of gathering interviews, restoring and digitizing newsreels, writing and editing, the “Knox Mine Disaster” movie premiered to a sellout crowd on the exact day of its 60th anniversary. The film was screened at the Kirby Center for the Creative Arts at Wyoming Seminary in Kingston.
The mining catastrophe took place at approximately 11:30 a.m. Jan. 22, 1959, when miners excavating anthracite coal came dangerously close to the bed of the icy Susquehanna River in Jenkins Township near Pittston.
The river broke through the mine’s ceiling, causing an estimated 10 billion gallons of water to rush into miles of mine shafts and veins. Of the 81 miners below, 69 escaped and 12 never made it out.
Longtime West Pittston resident and the last known survivor, 99-year-old Bill Hastie, was in attendance with his daughter, Megan.
Hastie played an important role in rescuing miners who were trying to climb their way out of the 50-foot vertical Eagle Air Shaft.
Much of late WYOU cameraman Jack Scannella’s film work was used in the movie. Scannella documented dozens of railcars being driven into the 150-foot-wide whirlpool in the river as well as interviews of surviving miners at the nearby Pittston Hospital.
‘Capture those stories’
Robert P. Wolensky, co-author of “Voices of the Knox Mine Disaster,” saw his book come to life on screen. Wolensky was on hand to support the film and offered moviegoers a chance to buy his book.
“The Broccas, you know, 10 years on this and I’ve been working with them over that period of time,” Wolensky said. “I’m happy to see their progress. It comes together tonight and the Knox Disaster is not just a mining disaster; it’s become a symbol, a bigger-than-life indicator of not just the end of the mining industry in the Wyoming Valley. But the causes of it that had to do with illegal mining, corruption, up and down the scale from management down to the ordinary mine worker.”
Wolensky met David Brocca by chance. Knowing Brocca was a filmmaker in Los Angeles, Wolensky planted the seed to do a documentary on coal mining history in the Wyoming Valley.
“Whenever my cousin and I came back home, we would bring our gear and start recording interviews of survivors because we knew they were getting up there in age,” David Brocca said. “We wanted to capture those stories.”
Brocca, a seasoned director and cinematographer, felt a duty to get the story to the public.
“There’s a lot of twists and turns (in the film); you’ll see that,” he said. “There are a lot of court hearings, a little organized crime involvement and a lot of times we focus a lot on the 12 that died, but there were 81 men trapped underground and most of them got out alive and so I focused on that.”
The first hour of the movie consisted of what led up to the disaster and rescuing the survivors. The last 45 minutes focuses on the subsequent hearings and exposure of corruption on the part of the mine company.
“It’s tremendous and I’m just proud that this is my hometown and they supported the film and we sold out a 600-seat theater,” Brocca said. “I’m humbled by the experience.”
