Welcome to a miniseries about the creatives in Huntington! This miniseries will introduce clever, local independent creatives using the ingenuity handed down to them by their Appalachian ancestors to make the most of the film, canvas, and space they have to put their passion into the world, and enjoy their work!
Meet Hannah Turley, an independent photographer and film-maker striving to use her camera to tell stories and lift voices to put to Christ and to her home, West Virginia. She covered the teacher's strike earlier this year in an independent, "Not-the-News" film wherein she spoke to and filmed multiple teachers and those involved in the strike to cover the historic event on a grassroots level. Her film is linked below, as well as her social media.
Hannah Turley
Tell Me About Yourself
I have lived in Huntington my whole life, born and raised! Technically Barboursville but close enough to Huntington that I think it counts. I'm going to Marshall University to probably study business and finance because, with all the photography stuff, I pretty much know how to take pictures, I don't need college to teach me that but I don't know how to run a business so I really want to learn that. I chose Marshall because my momma went there so having an alumna in the family was a factor, and it's also close and out-of-state colleges are not really in the budget. It's a good little school and I'm excited to go there.
What Do You Think It Means to be a West Virginian?
That's a huge question. I think to be a West Virginian is really to be proud of where you came from. I know that might sound like a corny answer but I feel like you kinda have to be proud of where you came from because the rest of the world has a less than preferred impression of West Virginia so that sort of breeds in us a desire to prove them wrong. For me personally, it makes me want to go out and do great things whether that's with film-making or photography or portraying my state in a positive light, and in all things, point back to Christ and also point back to home.
This is where I came from, this is what made me. "Where did you come from?", you know? I remember back in grade school we were with some of our peers talking about dreams, what we wanted to be when we grew up and all that, and two of my friends were like, "I want to get out of West Virginia as soon as I can, there's nothing here". And I vividly remember feeling insulted and I was like, "Man, this is our home state! Why do you want to leave?!". That made me just want to prove that there is stuff here, even if the rest of the world doesn't see that, there's a whole lot here people don't realize.
How Do You Think People See West Virginia and Huntington?
That we're inopportune. I would have loved to have seen a new industry come in before we pretty much shut down the coal industry. The coal industry was a huge part of West Virginia and now that's dying out. And I would love to see a new industry come in, I don't know what that industry is, God knows, but hopefully we'll start seeing something else come in to where people can look at West Virginia and say, "hey, at least they have this thing!" that's more obvious than maybe the other things we've got going on.
What Do You Wish People Knew About West Virginia?
That we're more than druggies, and we're more than hicks. We are lovers, we're fighters, we're artisans, we're educated people with an accent. You know, we're more than our struggles, we're more than the problems that try so hard to define us. We are so much more.
What Is a Problem You Want to Fix in the World?
Everything! I wish people were nicer to each other and also that they loved Jesus more. And I think the solution to that because I never want to talk about a problem without offering a solution, is flowers. Because I'm a firm believer that flowers are a love language and that maybe if we gave each other more flowers we would have to be nicer to each other. And then maybe people would be like, "thank you, Jesus, for making these flowers!". So flowers, nice people, and Jesus!
What Is a Fond Memory You Have of West Virginia or Huntington?
Marshall games! I loved growing up and seeing everybody go out to a Marshall game whether that was going to the stadium or turning on the TV or radio and we got to simultaneously cheer them on. And I almost think it's funny, the sermon last Sunday kind of reminded me of this because he kind of started talking about teams. I love the fact that everyone in Huntington or even remotely in the area seems to love Marshall so much more than they do WVU. Why is that? I always that maybe it's the underdog feel of Marshall. We love rooting for the little guy. And God forbid I go to WVU, I think my family would disown me if I went there, so Marshall it is! We love rooting for the little guy because I think in a sense, it's because West Virginia has got that same underdog feel.
I mean there may be better teams so to speak, there be better places to go, we may not win every game but we've got hard-earned grit. We have I think this unspoken appreciation that's unbroken for unconventional beauty. There's a lot to us. I mean, we've got this pride that really runs through our family and that's the heart of an underdog, I think. That a lot of teams are not gonna offer and West Virginia's got that. So when I'm cheering on the Herd in that stadium or at home or watching Marshall go to March Madness which was absolutely insane, it's like I'm cheering on home. And it's that same hope of where I came from as well as well as where I'm gonna go. So go Herd.
What Is an Area of Improvement You See for Huntington or Marshall?
Media representation. Hugely. And that's kind of the same thing with my goal, being an independent film-maker from West Virginia is the way I portray my state, I portray the people in my state, the success stories of my state. The whole thing with the teachers, 55 Strong, that was so inspiring to me! That whole movement, of, like, wow! The way we sort of broke into the media in a new light because there were so many voices that said, "We are more than our problems and this is what we're doing to fight back!"
So when I went to the Capitol and I went on the side of the road to interview those teachers for the film that I made, holy cow, they had some great input. I was like, "this is the spirit of West Virginia right here". These teachers inspired states like Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Oklahoma, it's happening! We started something! Yes, go West Virginia! We're shakers, we're movement makers right here in West Virginia! And I love that, the way the media was able to capture that. The big goal of my film was to push that out there. "This is what West Virginia is, this what the teachers really wanted you to know."
What Was a Big Take-Away You Learned from Your Film-making Process?
Perspective matters. Always. Every single interview I had was different in some way or another because each person had different experiences, different life stories, different hopes for the future. And to shine a better light on each of those perspectives and freely understand them is so important and it just goes back the whole media thing. A lot of media portrayals are biased, they only want to pick one perspective and filter through that. There's more to it than that.
Hannah's Links
youtu.be/b2xVgMdxJLK -Film
https://www.facebook.com/safirestudios/ -Social Media
