HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. (BARBARA KOPPLE, 1976)
Randwick Ritz, Sydney:
1:40 PM
Sunday 10 May
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
1:40 PM
Sunday 17 May
Rating: PG
Duration: 103 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
1:40 PM
Sunday 10 May
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
1:40 PM
Sunday 17 May
Rating: PG
Duration: 103 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
4K RESTORATION – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
‘Kopple’s is an obviously involved camera … a camera that reflects her own commitment to the people, their suffering, and their struggle. Because she experiences the struggle as if it were her own, she enables us to experience it in an unusually direct and moving way.’ – E. Ann Kaplan, Jump Cut
‘Exemplifies a kind of nonfiction filmmaking – unabashedly partisan yet patient and perceptive, years in the making, and expertly assembled – that I fear grows ever rarer.’ – Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice
Barbara Kopple was just 26 when she relocated to rural Kentucky to document the gruelling, thirteen-month Brookside coalminers’ strike. With complete access to the embattled community, Kopple and her crew sensitively captured the violent struggle from the perspective of the miners and their families. The result is a heartbreaking testament to the dedication and bravery of the men and women on the picket lines and an astonishing feat of documentary filmmaking.
Combining cinéma-vérité techniques with archival footage and a haunting country-and-bluegrass soundtrack, Harlan County U.S.A. is rightfully considered among the greatest American films of the 1970s.
Introduced by Pat Fiske at Ritz Cinemas and Dylan Rowen at Lido Cinemas.
‘Kopple’s is an obviously involved camera … a camera that reflects her own commitment to the people, their suffering, and their struggle. Because she experiences the struggle as if it were her own, she enables us to experience it in an unusually direct and moving way.’ – E. Ann Kaplan, Jump Cut
‘Exemplifies a kind of nonfiction filmmaking – unabashedly partisan yet patient and perceptive, years in the making, and expertly assembled – that I fear grows ever rarer.’ – Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice
Barbara Kopple was just 26 when she relocated to rural Kentucky to document the gruelling, thirteen-month Brookside coalminers’ strike. With complete access to the embattled community, Kopple and her crew sensitively captured the violent struggle from the perspective of the miners and their families. The result is a heartbreaking testament to the dedication and bravery of the men and women on the picket lines and an astonishing feat of documentary filmmaking.
Combining cinéma-vérité techniques with archival footage and a haunting country-and-bluegrass soundtrack, Harlan County U.S.A. is rightfully considered among the greatest American films of the 1970s.
Introduced by Pat Fiske at Ritz Cinemas and Dylan Rowen at Lido Cinemas.
FILM NOTES
By Belinda Smaill
By Belinda Smaill
| Belinda Smaill is Professor of Film and Screen Studies at Monash University. Her research and writing focusses on documentary screen culture. Her recent work explores non-fiction storytelling and its conceptualisation of the environment. |
Harlan County U.S.A is one of the most celebrated documentaries of twentieth century American political filmmaking. It won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and has been designated an “American Film Classic” by the USA Library of Congress. Harlan County U.S.A is a labour film. It tells the story of the 1973/74 miners’ strike at Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. The broader context of the film hinges on the miners’ decision to sign a new contract that would allow them to be represented by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The contract would bring slightly higher wages and medical and retirement benefits. Eastover Mining Company, who manage the mine, and owners Duke Power, are standing firm against the contract.
Director and producer, Barbara Kopple, is embedded in the struggle for the 13-month duration of the strike. Her camera documents the daily life of the miners, including picket lines and meetings, while also recording interviews with union officials, miners, and their wives. She also records the images of the township in Southeastern Appalachia, including dilapidated housing and the mountainous backdrop. This is a life lived in the shadow of the mine in a place where coal mining shapes experiences across generations. One interviewee in the film informs the audience that the mine has a monopoly over labour in the town, leaving little choice but to endure the Dickensian conditions on offer. Housing is owned by Duke Power and a large proportion of homes do not have electricity or plumbing. The images of impoverished surroundings in the town evoke the vista of 1930s America poverty made famous by filmmaker Pare Lorentz and photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. Yet the clothing and haircuts tell us that this is a town struggling to thrive in the 1970s.
Harlan County U.S.A is Kopple’s first film, and it began a successful career that included another Academy Award in 1991 for American Dream, a film that publicises the meatpackers’ strike in Austin, Minnesota and returns to themes of class and labour. Kopple emerged out of a strong documentary lineage. Early in her career she was an assistant for Albert and David Maysles and she worked on Salesman (1968) and their film about the Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter (1970). Yet Kopple made the Maysles’ observational or “fly on the wall” style her own.
In its pure form, observational documentaries avoid voice-over narration, inter-titles, music tracks and any footage not obtained directly by the filmmakers. Harlan County U.S.A, however, uses archival images and footage to convey the recent history of the dispute and to couch the film in longer history that includes the violent 1930s labour battles in Harlan. The film includes new reports of the recent collapse of another coal mine that trapped and killed 78 workers. Dispensing with a “voice of God” narration, Harlan County U.S.A paints a picture of the strike, from beginning to end, while also offering a broader historical context and showing the machinations of the politics of corrupt organised labour. This includes the murder of union reformer, Jock Yablonski, and his family, ordered by the corrupt boss of the UMW, Tony Boyle.
Kopple’s use of documentary technique embeds the viewer in the workers’ struggle. We are there with her and the miners on the picket lines, in the courtrooms and at the meetings. We are in close proximity as striking workers are verbally abused, charged by cars and trucks and shot at. We are also close to the faces engaged in argument within the labour movement and between law enforcement, mine managers and strikers. ‘Which Side Are You On’ is a refrain that echoes through Harlan County U.S.A via the song that is sung by the miners and their supporters. It was written for the 1930s strikes in Harlan and resurrected for the current strike with new verses. It is one of several folk songs that connect the strike into a longer cultural heritage while also using lyrics to tell the story of events as they occurred. While it would be easy to accuse Kopple of overusing the song, it achieves a clear aim in the film – it punctuates events with the certainty that you are either on the side of power and exploitation, or you are on the side of unions. It reminds the audience of the alignment of the film in a battle against capitalist interests. At one point an elderly woman who had experienced the violence of the 1930s states: ‘If I get shot, they can’t shoot the union out of me.’ This reinforces the work of the camera as it records men and women putting their bodies on the line.
Harlan County U.S.A. women are important to the success of the strike. They are shown as the central organisers in the campaign, leading their own meetings and organising men on the picket line, while being centrally present in blockades themselves. The figure of strike leader, Lois Scott, looms large. In one sequence she pulls a 38 handgun from deep within the front of her blouse, proclaiming that, in a context like this, why would you not carry a gun. She chastises men for not meeting their obligations to be on the early morning picket line with the women.
This description of the betrayal, poverty and exploitation of workers alongside the violence and high tension of the picket line might infer that Harlan County U.S.A is a film that sensationalises the event it depicts. Yet this is not the case. In many ways the film is a measured account that asks the viewer to work to piece together some of the key events of the strike. For example, when one of the young miners, Lawrence Jones, is shot in the face and killed by a plant from the company (an event that may have indeed drawn the strike to a conclusion), the story unfolds slowly in the editing. A shot of Jones on life support in the hospital and emotionally neutral interviews with his 16-year-old wife and his mother, and then the funeral, gradually depict the aftermath of what occurred. If anything, the editing sometimes leaves the chronology and importance of events difficult or slow to decipher. The power of the film rests not on the highs and lows of a narrative shaped by emphatic editing with a supporting music track, but from a camera positioned on the frontline, recording the sounds and images of the strikers. This attention to the experience of resistance carries the film’s momentum and emotion.
At the conclusion of the strike this momentum falls away and the film ends with the agreement made between the company and the union. The fact that Harlan County U.S.A concludes with an ambiguous position on the deal may owe something to the mixed feeling about it and the compromises involved. Some reports have detailed the ongoing transgressions enacted by company management. Continuing to prosper, Duke Power now operates under the name Duke Energy Corporation. It is a Fortune 150 company and, despite the climate crisis, has been slow to transition to renewable energy, with recent reports showing approximately 5% of their electricity generation coming from wind and solar. Coal remains 14% of the mix, alongside a higher proportion of nuclear and fracked gas. The 2024 documentary, King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, offers an updated and expanded perspective on coal mining in Appalachia. With its focus on cultural, economic and emotional legacies, it allows us to view Harlan County U.S.A as not simply a film about a miners’ strike. It shows cultures of energy, such as those surrounding coal, to be part of a deep history of social stratification, identity formation and cultural heritage that is not easy to generalise. Both films tell stories that equip us in important ways as the world grapples with climate change and social and economic justice in the context of sustainable energy.
Director and producer, Barbara Kopple, is embedded in the struggle for the 13-month duration of the strike. Her camera documents the daily life of the miners, including picket lines and meetings, while also recording interviews with union officials, miners, and their wives. She also records the images of the township in Southeastern Appalachia, including dilapidated housing and the mountainous backdrop. This is a life lived in the shadow of the mine in a place where coal mining shapes experiences across generations. One interviewee in the film informs the audience that the mine has a monopoly over labour in the town, leaving little choice but to endure the Dickensian conditions on offer. Housing is owned by Duke Power and a large proportion of homes do not have electricity or plumbing. The images of impoverished surroundings in the town evoke the vista of 1930s America poverty made famous by filmmaker Pare Lorentz and photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. Yet the clothing and haircuts tell us that this is a town struggling to thrive in the 1970s.
Harlan County U.S.A is Kopple’s first film, and it began a successful career that included another Academy Award in 1991 for American Dream, a film that publicises the meatpackers’ strike in Austin, Minnesota and returns to themes of class and labour. Kopple emerged out of a strong documentary lineage. Early in her career she was an assistant for Albert and David Maysles and she worked on Salesman (1968) and their film about the Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter (1970). Yet Kopple made the Maysles’ observational or “fly on the wall” style her own.
In its pure form, observational documentaries avoid voice-over narration, inter-titles, music tracks and any footage not obtained directly by the filmmakers. Harlan County U.S.A, however, uses archival images and footage to convey the recent history of the dispute and to couch the film in longer history that includes the violent 1930s labour battles in Harlan. The film includes new reports of the recent collapse of another coal mine that trapped and killed 78 workers. Dispensing with a “voice of God” narration, Harlan County U.S.A paints a picture of the strike, from beginning to end, while also offering a broader historical context and showing the machinations of the politics of corrupt organised labour. This includes the murder of union reformer, Jock Yablonski, and his family, ordered by the corrupt boss of the UMW, Tony Boyle.
Kopple’s use of documentary technique embeds the viewer in the workers’ struggle. We are there with her and the miners on the picket lines, in the courtrooms and at the meetings. We are in close proximity as striking workers are verbally abused, charged by cars and trucks and shot at. We are also close to the faces engaged in argument within the labour movement and between law enforcement, mine managers and strikers. ‘Which Side Are You On’ is a refrain that echoes through Harlan County U.S.A via the song that is sung by the miners and their supporters. It was written for the 1930s strikes in Harlan and resurrected for the current strike with new verses. It is one of several folk songs that connect the strike into a longer cultural heritage while also using lyrics to tell the story of events as they occurred. While it would be easy to accuse Kopple of overusing the song, it achieves a clear aim in the film – it punctuates events with the certainty that you are either on the side of power and exploitation, or you are on the side of unions. It reminds the audience of the alignment of the film in a battle against capitalist interests. At one point an elderly woman who had experienced the violence of the 1930s states: ‘If I get shot, they can’t shoot the union out of me.’ This reinforces the work of the camera as it records men and women putting their bodies on the line.
Harlan County U.S.A. women are important to the success of the strike. They are shown as the central organisers in the campaign, leading their own meetings and organising men on the picket line, while being centrally present in blockades themselves. The figure of strike leader, Lois Scott, looms large. In one sequence she pulls a 38 handgun from deep within the front of her blouse, proclaiming that, in a context like this, why would you not carry a gun. She chastises men for not meeting their obligations to be on the early morning picket line with the women.
This description of the betrayal, poverty and exploitation of workers alongside the violence and high tension of the picket line might infer that Harlan County U.S.A is a film that sensationalises the event it depicts. Yet this is not the case. In many ways the film is a measured account that asks the viewer to work to piece together some of the key events of the strike. For example, when one of the young miners, Lawrence Jones, is shot in the face and killed by a plant from the company (an event that may have indeed drawn the strike to a conclusion), the story unfolds slowly in the editing. A shot of Jones on life support in the hospital and emotionally neutral interviews with his 16-year-old wife and his mother, and then the funeral, gradually depict the aftermath of what occurred. If anything, the editing sometimes leaves the chronology and importance of events difficult or slow to decipher. The power of the film rests not on the highs and lows of a narrative shaped by emphatic editing with a supporting music track, but from a camera positioned on the frontline, recording the sounds and images of the strikers. This attention to the experience of resistance carries the film’s momentum and emotion.
At the conclusion of the strike this momentum falls away and the film ends with the agreement made between the company and the union. The fact that Harlan County U.S.A concludes with an ambiguous position on the deal may owe something to the mixed feeling about it and the compromises involved. Some reports have detailed the ongoing transgressions enacted by company management. Continuing to prosper, Duke Power now operates under the name Duke Energy Corporation. It is a Fortune 150 company and, despite the climate crisis, has been slow to transition to renewable energy, with recent reports showing approximately 5% of their electricity generation coming from wind and solar. Coal remains 14% of the mix, alongside a higher proportion of nuclear and fracked gas. The 2024 documentary, King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, offers an updated and expanded perspective on coal mining in Appalachia. With its focus on cultural, economic and emotional legacies, it allows us to view Harlan County U.S.A as not simply a film about a miners’ strike. It shows cultures of energy, such as those surrounding coal, to be part of a deep history of social stratification, identity formation and cultural heritage that is not easy to generalise. Both films tell stories that equip us in important ways as the world grapples with climate change and social and economic justice in the context of sustainable energy.
THE RESTORATION
Source: Janus Films
The 4K high-definition digital transfer was supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple.
Director: Barbara Kopple; Production Company: Cabin Creek Films; Producer: Barbara Kopple; Photography: Kevin Keating, Hart Perry; Editor: Nancy Baker, Mirra Bank, Lora Hays, Mary Lampson.
USA | 1976 | 103 mins | 4K DCP | English - Documentary | PG
The 4K high-definition digital transfer was supervised by director-producer Barbara Kopple.
Director: Barbara Kopple; Production Company: Cabin Creek Films; Producer: Barbara Kopple; Photography: Kevin Keating, Hart Perry; Editor: Nancy Baker, Mirra Bank, Lora Hays, Mary Lampson.
USA | 1976 | 103 mins | 4K DCP | English - Documentary | PG