Fairmont, Berkeley, Jefferson in AMC’s ‘American West’

Prickett’s Fort State Park in Fairmont will be in American Movie Classics cable channel’s “The American West,” an 8-part series that will premiere at 10 p.m. Sunday, June 11. Berkeley and Jefferson counties also will be featured in the series covering 1865 to 1890 to show how, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the United States transforms into the “land of opportunity.”

It will also chronicle the personal, little-known stories of Western legends such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. There are interviews with stars of Western films, including Robert Redford, James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Kiefer Sutherland, Mark Harmon and Ed Harris.

The series is produced by Redford and Laura Michalchyshyn through their Sundance Productions, and Emmy Award-winning producer Stephen David of Stephen David Entertainment. David has filmed five other miniseries in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle: “NASCAR: The Rise of American Speed” for CMT; “The Men Who Built America” for History Channel; “The World Wars” for History Channels; “American Genius” for National Geographic; and “The Making of the Mob: New York” for AMC Networks.

Movie hopes to blunt stereotypes about West Virginia

Tijah Bumgarner is making a movie, “Meadow Bridge,” about an awkward 14-year-old girl who's made fun of at school that she hopes will dispel or at least dilute some of the stereotyping bad-mouthing of West Virginians.

Explains Tijah: What I’m pointing out in the film is that “Hey, kids that grow up here, we go through the same things as everywhere else.

“Sure, we may think we're a little different, but really, we all kind of go through these things. Y'know, we all have a crush, we all have a first kiss. I'm hoping that people can relate to that."

Meadow Bridge is in Raleigh County, just like Beckley, but was known as Beelick Knob when it was a coal town.

A 2014 Washington Post article didn’t help Tijah’s cause. It listed West Virginia last in a well-being index based on such things as financial security, access to food, shelter and health care.

West Virginia has the second-worst per capita income in America at $21,232, the highest obesity rate, the highest percentage of working-age people on disability benefits, and is near the top in diabetes and heart disease.

Those, unfortuntely, are facts, not stereotypes.

To read the entire article on Tijah, click on http://www.upworthy.com/she-never-heard-people-bad-mouth-her-home-state-until-she-left-now-shes-making-a-film-in-response