Friday March 2nd Toxic Soup screened as part of the 17th annual Tulane Environmental Law Summit in New Orleans, LA. The screening went well and director Rory Owen Delaney fielded a bunch of great questions from the audience, sold some DVDs and gave away posters. As an added bonus environmental attorney Kevin Thompson, who features in two of the cases presented in Toxic Soup, participated in the Q+A as well. The next day Kevin Thompson participated in a panel on THE MASSEY COAL LITIGATION: COAL SLURRY CONTAMINATION IN RAWL, WV. This is case involving the preacher Larry Brown for those of you have seen Toxic Soup. For those of you who haven't seen the doc yet it is slated to be live on HULU with the next two weeks. Or you can stream it right now through Distrify at toxicsoupmovie.com. DVDs are also available on amazon.com as well as directly through the website.

You may remember that he Upper Big Branch mine disaster claimed the lives of 29 miners and, in the end, humbled Massey Energy and its controversial CEO Don Blankenship. Daring to confront the company known in the coalfields for its “no-holds-barred” litigation tactics, Kevin Thompson and several other attorneys sued Massey for contaminating the well water of 700+ residents of a rural West Virginia community with billions of gallons of improperly disposed toxic coal slurry. After 7 years of litigation, the case was settled days before trial last summer, but only after a judge was recused and the case assigned by the WV Supreme Court to a Mass Litigation Panel.

Kevin Thompson, Plaintiff’s Attorney in Rawl case; Dr. Stephen King, Toxicologist, Manager of Toxicology, Inc.; Stephen Wussow, Senior Research Analyst, Thompson, Barney Law

http://www.flickr.com//photos/56135184@N02/show/

"Mountain Man" is a short documentary that tells the story of mountain top removal activist Larry Gibson. He's been laughed at, cussed out and shot at, but Larry refuses to abandon his home atop Kayford Mountain. "Mountain Man" screened at London's prestigious Raindance Film Festival and won a Silver Sierra Award at the 2011 Yosemite Film Festival. "Mountain Man" made its world premiere at the 2011 Santa Cruz Film Festival and has also screened at the Culture Unplugged Film Festival. We are proud to announce our partnership with the nonprofit Keepers of the Mountain Foundation, established by MTR activist Larry Gibson. Larry Gibson's family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700's. More than 300 relatives are buried in the cemetery on Kayford Mountain. Larry and his family used to live on the lowest lying part of the mountain, and looked "up" to the mountain peaks that surrounded them. Since 1986, the slow motion destruction of Kayford Mountain has been continuous -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eighteen years after the "mountain top removal" project began, Larry Gibson now occupies the highest point of land around; he is enveloped more than 7,500 acres of destruction of what was previously a forested mountain range

Man Bites Dog Films is donating 100% of the revenue earned by the short film "Mountain Man" to the Keepers of the Mountain foundation in order to further Larry's mission to end mountain top removal as well as to protect what remains of Kayford Mountain. Stream the award-winning short film for just $4.97 or download it for $9.97. The DVD is coming soon!