Harlan County, USA (1976)

Original title

Harlan County U.S.A.

Directed by

Barbara Kopple

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 43m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 116 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows coal miners and their families in Kentucky as they go on strike for safer working conditions and fair pay. It shows the daily struggles, the solidarity among the workers, and the violent confrontations with company security and strikebreakers.

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What happens

Harlan County USA (variously written with and without a comma) is a 1976 American documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike", a 1973 effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 49th Academy Awards. It was directed and produced by filmmaker Barbara Kopple, then early in her filmmaking career. A former VISTA volunteer, she had worked on other documentaries, especially as an advocate of workers' rights. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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