These classic films from Barbara Kopple document two memorable and heartbreaking strikes - one between coal miners in the 1970s and the Duke Power company, who refused to recognize their union, and another among workers at Hormel Foods in the 1980s after their wages and benefits were cut.
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To watch, all you need is a free login on Eventive (you'll be prompted when getting a ticket). Once adding a film to your account, you can also choose to watch on your TV by downloading the "Eventive TV" app.
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These virtual screenings are hosted by the Workers Unite! Film Festival and sponsored in part by the DC Labor Film Fest and the Global Film Festival Network.
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Harlan County USAunflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack - with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece - the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.(103 min, 1976, Director: Barbara Kopple)
American Dream - “The people in this film are so real they make most movie characters look like inhabitants of the funny page. Families are torn apart. One brother goes back to work, another stays on the picket lines. Workers have tears in their eyes as they describe not being able to support their families. It becomes clear that no possible win by the members of P-9 could compensate them for the wages they have already lost - especially as they are striking, not for a raise, but against a pay cut. A nobility creeps onto the scene, as people make enormous financial and personal sacrifices simply for what they believe is morally right. Our hearts are torn, because on the basis of this film we are not sure they have chosen the wisest path.
[…] Is there a lesson at the end of "American Dream"? I think there is. I think the lesson is that the American tradition of collective bargaining will break down if companies can simply ignore a legal strike, hire replacements, and continue as before. There was a time in American history when such behavior by management would have been seen as not only illegal but immoral. The new management philosophers who won ascendency in the 1980s dismiss such views as sentimentalism. They are concerned only with the bottom line, where they see profits, not people.” - Roger Ebert
(98 min, 1990, Directors: Barbara Kopple, Cathy Caplan, and Thomas Haneke)
Watch via this link.