"Barbara Kopple is one of my favorite filmmakers. What I love about her films is that she gains a unique trust from and access to her subjects. That must be a reflection of the filmmaker and the woman herself. She’s a trailblazer, a role model, and a great director.
Harlan County USA won an Academy Award, and while Kopple has made other films, this is seminal viewing. Yes, it’s a great documentary about a coal miners’ strike in 1973, but it’s much more than that. It’s a history lesson about coal miners, and we need to honor that, and not forget the men who died taking coal out of this earth. It’s also a portrait of Eastern Kentucky. The rural atmosphere is captured through songs and stories that harken back to our pioneers. At some point, it becomes not just a great documentary but a testimony to the strength of the women of Harlan County, who are the spine of the film. They risked their lives to keep this strike going. And all the while, the camera is capturing it. A grieving mother at her son’s funeral, a wife pulling a gun out of her bra and saying she’s not giving up, an elderly woman leading a group in singing “Bloody Harlan.” They lost sons and husbands, but they never stopped fighting. If we forget their struggle, and the struggle of all the workers who built this country, we are lost. Harlan County USA should be shown more than it is now, that’s for sure.
When I interviewed Kopple about this film, I asked her about the effect that filming these people had on her, and she said, “I learned what it was to be brave.” She used her camera to create social change, and by using her camera to film the women of Harlan County, I believe, she gave them courage. That is the power of film."
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