Friday, Sept. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in James Madison University’s Memorial Hall, Wild Virginia hosts a screening of the award-winning student-produced documentary, “Won’t Pipe Down,” which tells the story of Nelson County residents fighting against Dominion’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. WMRA’s Kara Lofton talked to one of the student filmmakers.
Abigail Riggleman is one of the student filmmakers from James Madison University. Producing the documentary was her idea.
ABIGAIL RIGGLEMAN: The project started when I found out that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was supposed to come through my family’s property.
Riggleman’s family owns Silverback Distillery in Afton. The proposed route would cut through the back of that property and across a stream the Rigglemans depend on to make their products.
RIGGLEMAN: What’s very interesting about this film is because my family was supposed to be affected by the pipeline I found out about it very, very early before a lot of people even knew about the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. So we sort of went along this journey with all the other activists and community members of Nelson and Augusta County.
The students filmed the first Dominion Open House in Augusta County and documented residents’ confusion around the issue.
Riggleman says that Dominion refused to be interviewed for the film unless they were given creative control over the content.
RIGGLEMAN: In doing a documentary it is important to at least hear both sides and, you know, whatever the filmmaker decides to focus on is the filmmaker's decision, but trying to reach out to Dominion – it was very, very difficult to work with them.
The students have been working with the organization Wild Virginia to promote the movie and organize screenings. The film has also been submitted to several environmental film festivals.