Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976, USA)

In the year 1973 mineworkers in Harlan County, Kentucky laid down work and went on a strike which lasted for thirteen months. Barbara Kopple’s film weaves together the struggle of the Brookside miners and a past strike in depression times, remembered as The Bloody Harlan Strike. The film also follows the election campaign of Alan Miller (candidate for the Miners for Democracy) for the presidency of UMWA (United Mine Workers of America) and cycles back a few years to a contentious election, turned murderous.

The initial intentions of Kopple was to film the campaign of Alan Miller, and the trial of then UMWA president Tony Boyle who was accused of ordering the assassination of his rival Yablonski. When the strike began she turned her attention to the miners, their life, their battle and their families, keeping her first intentions in the backgroud. The story begins quietly with rallies, picketing, the miners’ wives organizing support commities, then building up to where the film crew is attacked and the picketers are shot at and ending violently with little feeling of closure.

Kopple uses handheld 16mm cameras and records the sound on location, sacrificing quality for easy and quick movement. She uses the methods of cinema verité but seperates from it by using interviews, archived footage and added music. The music is mostly grassroot and traditionally flavored and expresses a simular dialectic as the footage shown.