AllMovie

Documentary filmmakers Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland team up to tell the bizarre tale of a Pennsylvania mining town rendered largely uninhabitable by a dense underground coal fire that has been burning for decades. Centralia, PA, was once a modest, working-class mining town. As fate would have it, however, this once-thriving community would ultimately succumb to a devastating one-two punch of bureaucracy and bad luck. Flash forward to the year 2007, and there are only 11 residents who call Centralia home. In this film, viewers follow Centralia's youngest resident -- an outspoken proponent of community named John Lokitis -- as he stands up for his oft-maligned town. The result is a poignant meditation on the true meaning of community and a thoughtful look at what it means to loose that fulfilling sense of unity when things fall apart.