Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. It was the dawn of the blockbuster age: the buzz around Jaws had barely receded, and Star Wars loomed on the horizon. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. This academy award winning documentary is itself an important contribution to the 20th century working class movement of the United States. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action—occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train until the miners get paid the wages they are owed for digging it up. For Further Reading: Roger Ebert’s 2006 review Paul Arthur’s 2006 review for The Criterion Collection Harlan County, USA (1976) Posted on May 5, 2012 by Mike C. Director: Barbara Kopple. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. Stream Harlan County, USA on HBO Max. Barbara Kopple: Harlan County, USA; that was my first ever film that I did on my own. Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA was one of the most important and powerful political documentaries of the 1970s, a startling and compelling look at a bitter coal miner's strike in Kentucky in the early '70s, and this DVD release of the film from The Criterion Collection treats Kopple's work like the masterpiece it is. “They can’t shoot the union out of me.” Long story short: 3.5/4 stars. Here is an edited version of that conversation. Cal Winslow takes a look back. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Harlan County USA is a film that is great at bringing you inside a community you probably haven’t thought much about before. Although realistic dramas still attracted mass audiences—as evidenced by Dog Day … The current popularity and cultural importance of documentaries would have been inconceivable in 1976, when Harlan County USA briefly ignited commercial movie screens. Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. Harlan County, USA followed 200 coal-mining families and their battle to get their rights, what every human being needs, and yet it's unbaised. Although these miners today have no union, the mines of Harlan County have a storied history of grassroots labor militancy. The county was the subject of the documentary film Harlan County, USA (1976), directed by Barbara Kopple. In Episode 2 of the Drunk Projectionist film podcast, host Todd Melby interviewed Barbara Kopple about Harlan County USA, her impressive first film.The 1976 documentary won an Academy Award. It documented organizing during a second major period of labor unrest in the 1970s, particularly around the Brookside Strike. 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