It's a story about a young man's journey through, and later out of, West Virginia coal country. It's about the choices young West Virginians face when they graduate high school. It's about the culture of the coal towns, the lives miners lead, and the consequences of the business decisions made by coal companies. It's about the West Virginia black community and their experiences in a predominantly white state. It's about religion and society, and it's about forgotten towns slowly fading into the underbrush as nature reclaims the broken-down houses and abandoned buildings.

We figured we'd make a short film about Marcus's family to show at a reunion. What we found in West Virginia changed our project, and it may have changed us as well: our eyes are open to a state falling behind the rest of the country, and we feel an obligation to give West Virginians a voice through our film.

All photography provided by the film crew at Staring Up from the Mineshaft.