The Austin Disaster 1911 (1999)

In 1911 Austin Pennsylvania was flooded due to the collapse of a dam built to serve the towns large paper mill killing 72 people many of whom were trying to save the lives of others Moving across the towns earliest wooded beginning to its fiercely industrial urbanity Austin within the context of apathy and tragedy is revealed through a rich interplay of narration interviews and detailed photographs The film explores the social environment of Industrial America in the early 1900s with its rapidly shifting commercial interests increasing immigration and severe tensions between factory owners and the working class Turning on the tragic pivot of the flood a portrait of an American community is etched starkly with the character of its people made plain in the receding waters