OLLI at UAH offers acclaimed environmental film ‘Sallie’s Ashes’ as free bonus event Nov. 6

Sallie Smith is called The Instigator in the documentary “Sallie’s Ashes.” Her main partners in the Move the Ash campaign are Diane Thomas, left, aka The Researcher, and Savan Wilson, center, The Techie. OLLI at UAH (the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Alabama in Huntsville) will screen the award-winning film Friday, Nov. 6, at 11 a.m. in Chan Auditorium.

Courtesy “Sallie’s Ashes”

Sallie Smith saw the environmental timebomb ticking 25 miles upstream from Mobile Bay: 21 million tons of toxic coal ash separated from the river by a single dirt dike. So, this grandmother battling terminal cancer organized her friends and took on an industrial giant.

OLLI at UAH (the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Alabama in Huntsville) will screen “Sallie’s Ashes,” the award-winning documentary that tells this story, Friday, Nov. 6, from 11 a.m. to noon in Chan Auditorium at UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System. The screening is presented by the Coal Ash Action Group (CAAG) and is open to the public free of charge as an OLLI Super Bonus event.

"Periodically, OLLI hosts a Super Bonus that we open to the general public that we feel is of interest to our community,” says Clay Williams, OLLI program manager. “We thought ‘Sallie’s Ashes’ met that criteria. Besides the great presentation itself, it gives us a chance to promote OLLI to those not familiar with our program and let them know all the great opportunities and benefits that OLLI has to offer.”

OLLI member Jane McBride, who helped arrange the program, has a personal connection to the subject.

“Sallie Smith was a classmate of mine in college in the early 1960s. Her zeal for making right matters of life and death is what mattered to her. I was absolutely convinced that her Move the Ash campaign was one I wanted to keep alive as long as it takes to correct the damage to my state.”

Smith, dubbed The Instigator in the film, recruited two other retirees to help lead the cause: Diane Thomas, The Researcher, and Savan Wilson, The Techie. Smith explains the impetus behind her actions on screen: “When I see something that’s a problem, it tends to call my name, and once it’s done that, then I need to sort of see it through.”

Smith founded CAAG in 2022, and the organization spent the next two years delivering presentations, hosting community events, participating in Environmental Protection Agency hearings, and building a grassroots base across Alabama. Alabama Public Radio and then National Public Radio picked up the story, which drew the attention of an Oscar- and Emmy-winning producer. Smith passed away Oct. 27, 2023.

“Sallie’s Ashes” has taken awareness of Smith’s campaign far beyond Alabama and her circle of friends. The film had its world premiere in 2025 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. It went on to be an official selection in 2025 at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Hawai’i International Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival and DOC NYC. It received the 2026 Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability at the DC Environmental Film Festival.

OLLI at UAH is a member-based learning community for adults age 50 and up, but there’s no age limit for this Super Bonus event. For more information on OLLI at UAH, call 256-824-6183 or email OLLI.info@uah.edu.