Synopsis:

    In Cumbria near Alston, a small drift mine was licensed from the Coal Board and worked by seven men, who had given up a variety of better paid jobs in exchange for a more independent working life. Burrowed deep into a hillside, with some of the seams only two feet high, the enterprise was commercially shaky, yet the men who endured physically hard and long working days, viewed their lives with certain affection, and even lyricism.
    High Row observes a day in the life of the mine, using few words, but attempting to communicate something of the menís own vision of their lives in a rich texture of sounds and images. Having no commentary and no dramatic climax, the film recaptures the pace and rhythm of their working day, while creating a cinematic prose poem from the surreal, yet harmonious co-existence of grinding archaic machinery and unperturbed wildlife.
Made with assistance by: Northern Arts