Harlan County USA

United States, 1976

Film
Image via TMDb

A cinema verite account of a coal miners’ strike in Harlan, Kentucky between 1973 and 1974 when the miners at the Brookside Mine fought for the right to join the Mine Workers’ Union of America. The film shows the major events of the strike; the confrontation between management and employees, the gun-slinging scabs, picketing miners’ wives, and violence and murder. It also shows that organised labour can be corrupt as can managements, as illustrated by the fight for union leadership. Rated: PG

Credits

director

Barbara Kopple

production company

Cabin Creek Films

Language

English

Duration

01:43:00:00

Colour

Colour

Production places
United States
Production dates
1976

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

36028

Subject categories

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Academy awards (Motion pictures)

Documentary

Documentary → Cinema verite

Documentary → Documentary films - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Strikes and lockouts

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Trade-unions

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - United States

History → History

Sound/audio

Sound

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/80235--harlan-county-usa/ |title=Harlan County USA |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=19 June 2021 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}