Join The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant on September 24 at 6:30 PM at Point Park University’s George R. White Theatre for the screening and a discussion of “The Bulldogs,” about the uncertain path to recovery in East Palestine, Ohio, where the Norfolk Southern train derailed.
On September 25 at 6:00 PM at The Parkway Theater & Film Lounge,The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier will moderate a Q&A about the film “A Beast Touch the Mountain,” which chronicles the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
News about the environment is often negative, but two documentaries being featured at a film festival in Pittsburgh find beauty and hope in troubling times.
The Allegheny Front is a media sponsor of the 2026 Backyard Docs Film Festival, which opens Thursday, September 24, with a piece called “The Bulldogs.” It’s about a topic our team covered extensively, the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, about an hour north of Pittsburgh, which contaminated the community with industrial chemicals.
The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant got a chance to preview “The Bulldogs,” and another environmental film showing at the festival, and to talk with the producers.
LISTEN to the conversation
Kara Holsopple: When The Allegheny Front covered the train derailment and its aftermath, we looked at chemicals in the air, in people’s homes, and the waterways, and at the government and company responses.
How did the film “The Bulldogs” cover it?
Julie Grant: Even though this is a documentary, it’s got a cinematic take. The shots are framed in this way that evokes classic Americana. They spend time in the high school, whose mascot is a bulldog, with the marching band, at practice for the Christmas play, and getting to know some of the students.
The filmmakers go to an exercise class for older women, who stand in a circle while hitting large rubber balls with sticks. In one scene, the women are painting their faces like zombies, getting ready to dance to the song Thriller, when they find out one of their friends has unexpectedly died.
The camera spends time at the local hairdresser shop. Producer Drew Johnson, who now lives in Ohio, explained that even though this is non-fiction, it’s not meant to be journalism.
“The style that we ended up finding was a very observational style, a style that I think begets our approach, which was letting the residents speak and be themselves and show who they are,” he said.
Johnson said they spoke with residents who didn’t feel they were being portrayed accurately and fairly in the media. So, his team decided to set the cameras in place and let the people and their actions tell the story.
Kara Holsopple: So, does the film talk about the derailment and the pollution?
Julie Grant: It does. But we learn about many events along the way through the people who live there. So, for example, when we see Governor DeWine make an announcement, and federal officials visiting the town, it’s on TV. We’re viewing it like people would have seen it at the time.
We hear about the $600 million settlement of the community’s class action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, and we hear the people we’ve gotten to know through the film, like the hairdresser, explain it and respond.
And, even though this was a tragic event, Johnson found some hope through the people of East Palestine.
“None of these residents wanted this to happen, but given the information that it did happen, and everyone did their best and they did what they thought was, and they still think is, the best thing for them,” he said.
Kara Holsopple: There’s another environmental film being shown at the festival: “A Beast Touch the Mountain,” about the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, right?
Julie Grant: Yes, that’s the 303 mile pipeline that was completed and went online a couple of years ago, stretching over the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia down through Virginia.
This film is a more traditionally shot documentary, but it’s also visually interesting in the way it shows the beauty of the mountains, and the pipeline winding a path through the woods, up and down the mountains.
But again, the story here is about the people.
The story is told mostly through the women who live in the area, who saw their homes in the mountains as a type of heaven, with clean running water, mountain views and sunrises. That changed when the pipeline construction crews showed up. They cleared the land, ripped out trees, and the workers sometimes laughed at the residents’ distress. And then people who tried to protect their land got labeled as domestic terrorists.
The film shows families who took residence in the trees to stop them from being cut down.
It’s also a reminder of the role of former senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who supported the pipeline while making money from coal and the fossil fuel industries.
Kara Holsopple: What did the filmmaker say about what he was hoping audiences would take away from this documentary?
Julie Grant: Producer James Mottern said he believes there are forces of good and evil in the world, and he wanted to show that. He wanted to show the problems with the current patriarchal system we’re living in. And he also wanted to show that no matter how bad things look, even if you lose, as these people did, some things are worth fighting for.
“I was surprised at how much it meant to me and how much the experience of the people that were there in the fight that they brought to the mountaintop was something that I personally carry with me every day in my own life, in my family, in my community,” Mottern said.
He said he hopes the film inspires other people to fight for things they believe in.
I enjoyed watching both these movies, and found value in their beauty and in their messages.
These and other films are showing at the Backyard Docs Film Festival that starts September 24, and runs through the weekend. The Allegheny Front is a media sponsor of the event.
