Mountain views and coastlines draw visitors to the other 49 states, but what does Alabama have to offer?

David Pope, director of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Georgia and Alabama offices, said Alabama is one of the nation’s most resource-rich states. Most people just don’t know it.

“Alabama has all that as well,” Pope said. “It just became apparent to us that Alabama is so blessed with resources it ought to be something that’s touted with the state.”

With that in mind, the question became how Pope and the SELC could best educate not only Alabama citizens, but also the public at large about the state’s natural resources. The answer was Southern Exposure, a series of short documentaries made by film fellows at the law center.

Four of the films produced in 2013, the program’s second year, will be screened Monday at 7 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater at an event and discussion hosted by The University of Alabama Environmental Council.

Luke Buckley, a graduate of the UA visual journalism program, was one of SELC’s 2013 film fellows and produced the documentary “State of Power,” which will be screened. The film, as the name suggests, is about power companies in the state, but Buckley soon found himself involved in a story about a different kind of power.

“The story that kind of played out was about the political corruption in an economic story,” he said. “What’s controversial is Alabama Power’s relationship with the Public Service Commission.”

Buckley’s film was originally commissioned as simply a documentary about energy, with the Public Service Commission as a possible lead.

“It was more about capturing a moving target,” he said. “I kind of hit the ground running. It was pretty intense, to say the least.”

As he started to gather interviews and footage for the film, Buckley found himself being “body-checked by a coal miner,” followed by men with cameras and visited by a private investigator.

“[We] kind of immediately knew that we were up against something,” he said. “So it got pretty weird there for a few months in my life.”

Buckley sees the story that he ultimately documented as a simultaneously comical and depressing picture of Alabama’s “state of power.”

“The film was toned down a little bit,” he said. “Earlier cuts of the film were sort of a little bit more controversial than the final film that’s out now.”

Still, the process and product were such that a documentary released by the Alabama Coal Association sought to discredit him, Buckley said.

“I looked at it more as a piece of journalism than advocating one way or another,” he said. “I’d do it again.”

Pope said that while the program is designed to let filmmakers exercise their artistic freedom, the film’s main purpose is to educate and entertain in a thought-provoking way.

“We’re certainly not shying away from identifying problems, but we’re trying to identify problems in a way that reveals some sort of solution to the problem,” he said. “[We] are not going to be doing ‘gotcha’ films, we are not going to be doing films that make people look stupid, we are not going to be doing films that have an antagonistic air about them.”

He said the films ultimately promote Alabama’s resources, a goal that falls perfectly in line with SELC’s work as a whole.

“We do two different types of work,” Pope said. “We are an environmental advocacy and law organization. What people sort of know us for is our work in court, but really 75 percent of our work is what we call collaborative work. We want people to leave our films thinking, ‘Man, I didn’t know that, and they made a good point there.’”

Even the selection of filmmakers was driven in part by a desire to show others what Alabama offers. In the process of showing native viewers what their home state has to offer, Southern Exposure fellows often decide to stay in Alabama.

“We sort of wanted to be an ambassador for the South and the good people we have down here,” Pope said.

Olivia Bensinger, a member of the UA Environmental Council, said the four Southern Exposure films ECo will be screening were chosen for their local content.

“We just thought it would be a good way to localize environmental issues and show people what’s happening in their states, in their backyards,” she said. “The localest of the local, I guess, is what we tried to find.”

Bensinger said the topics covered by the SELC’s films are relevant to everyone, and while the term “environmental” can sound like a niche cause, the films describe topics relevant to students.

“The environment is not some distant wilderness. It’s where you are, where you’re living all the time. The Black Warrior River is right across the street, and it’s one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. That’s not distant,” she said. “Clean water’s important, but why is it important? Because people have to drink it.”

ECo is generally focused on environmental justice, or the pursuit of healthy interaction between people and their environments. One common example is the fight against air-polluting industrial plants in low-income neighborhoods. Bensinger said watching the films can be a good first step towards action.

“Before you get to this point where you want this action, you have to be aware and find your passion and the particular action you want to take,” she said. “[The series is] very people-focused.”

The ECo-hosted screening will feature “Overburdened: Undermined” about strip-mining in the Black Warrior River watershed, “Dammed: The Story of Alabama’s Rivers” about the Coosa River, “Forever Wild” about the recently renewed land trust by that name and “State of Power.”

All Southern Exposure films can be viewed online at www.southernenvironment.org or www.vimeopro.com/selc/southernexposure.