event
Harlan County USA
-
Sun Feb 19
1:30 pm
Harlan County USA at Music Box Theatre
The recent events in Wisconsin have renewed the bitter war between those who emphatically support unions and those who emphatically do not. For those in the former camp, no single film speaks to the cause than Harlan County USA, Barbara Kopple’s 1976 documentary about a coal miners’ strike in Kentucky. Initially looking to document the potential unseating of corrupt union president Tony Boyle, Kopple instead got interested in the 180 miners who just struck against the Duke Power Company in an action that had earned no response from the United Mine Workers Of America. Her cameras were there to catch the brutal story as it unfolded, complete with the arrival of scary union-breaker goons. A (somewhat) happy ending was the reward; for Kopple, it was an Oscar, and a sudden, albeit brief, Hollywood interest in unions—three years later emerged Norma Rae.
Music Box Theatre 3733 North Southport Avenue, Chicago, IL
The recent events in Wisconsin have renewed the bitter war between those who emphatically support unions and those who emphatically do not. For those in the former camp, no single film speaks to the cause than Harlan County USA, Barbara Kopple’s 1976 documentary about a coal miners’ strike in Kentucky. Initially looking to document the potential unseating of corrupt union president Tony Boyle, Kopple instead got interested in the 180 miners who just struck against the Duke Power Company in an action that had earned no response from the United Mine Workers Of America. Her cameras were there to catch the brutal story as it unfolded, complete with the arrival of scary union-breaker goons. A (somewhat) happy ending was the reward; for Kopple, it was an Oscar, and a sudden, albeit brief, Hollywood interest in unions—three years later emerged Norma Rae.
Updated 02/09/2012
