Episode 702: Harlan County U.S.A. / American Factory

Show Notes

For this second episode of our current season we try something new with a look back at an important film from the past, Barbara Kopple?s 1976 Harlan County U.S.A., which won the 1977 Best Documentary Oscar. Why this trip down docu-memory lane? Two reasons: 1) our guest host this week is actually a guest historian, Betsy McLane, who not only knows just about everything there is to know about documentary history, but also knows quite a lot about Kopple; and 2) the coal miners of Harlan County, Kentucky, are once again on strike, gaining national and international attention over the summer. Plus ?a change ?

And while we?re on the topic of great films about unions, we thought we?d also play a recent interview Chris did with directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert of American Factory, just recently released on Netflix, which tells the story of what happens when a Chinese glass company takes over an abandoned GM plant. It starts out so well, but then, well ? you?ll just have to listen to our podcast and then watch the movie. Enjoy!

Group Review Documentary:

HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple, 1976)

Available on disc and online

Film Featured in Interview Portion:

AMERICAN FACTORY (Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert, 2019)

Now on Netflix

Other Books and Documentaries Mentioned:

American Dream?(Barbara Kopple, 1990)
Hillbilly?(Sally Rubin/Ashley York, 2018)
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant?(Steven Bognar/Julia Reichert, 2009)
Monterey Pop?(D.A. Pennebaker, 1968)
Murder on a Sunday Morning?(Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2001)
My Generation?(Thomas Haneke/Barbara Kopple, 2000)
A New History of Documentary Film, 2nd Edition?(BOOK), by Betsy McLane (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)
One Child Nation?(Nanfu Wang/Jialing Zhang, 2019)
ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple?(BOOK), edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Susan Ryan (Edinburgh University Press, 2019)
The Staircase?(Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2004-2018)
Woodstock?(Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation?(Barak Goodman, 2019)