“Articulate, indomitable, courageous.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Few documentaries rivet you to your seat; this one does. The guts it took to make are up there on the screen, in the footage shot by director Barbara Kopple and cameraman Hart Perry during the violent encounters.” - Elliott Stein, Film Comment Magazine
Thursday, October 31, 8:30 p.m. | In the opening moments of Kopple’s groundbreaking, Academy Award-winning HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A., miners strap on helmets and climb aboard a conveyor belt that takes them down, down, down into the darkness of the Brookside Mine in southeast Kentucky. This potent and unnerving glimpse into the brutal working conditions of the American coal miner sets the tone for Kopple’s unflinching document of the 13-month miners strike in the early 1970s after their vote to unionize is rejected by Duke Power Company. Kopple spent years with the subjects depicted in the film, was given unprecedented access to their lives and families, and captured the abuse they experienced at the hands of strikebreakers, police, and company thugs while fighting for fair labor practices and decent wages. An honest portrait of corporate greed and individual courage, HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. is one of the most important films ever made about American labor.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Best Documentary Film, Academy Awards
Workers of the World, Unite! offers films that portray American organizers, unionizers, and labor rebels who speak up, speak out, and fight back against unfair working conditions and nefarious bosses in order to be treated (to quote Lily Tomlin’s character in 9 TO 5) “equally, with a little dignity, and a little respect.” Read more
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu