The Miners' Hymns plot
For The Miners' Hymns, Morrison uses black-and-white images of British miners that have been preserved in the British BFI National Film Archives and are shown here in slow motion. Morrison intersects this material with color images that he has filmed himself. These recent aerial shots show landscapes full of indeterminate parking lots, shopping centers and empty fields, where coal mines such as Ryhope Colliery (1857-1966) and Silksworth Colliery (1869-1971) once stood. There was also a lively, close-knit mining community above ground. Once upon a time, the Miners Association's annual celebration was pure pomp and circumstance. The closure of the mines was accompanied by fierce protests.