Harlan County, U.S.A.

Harlan County, U.S.A. is a documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple[?] about a coal-miner's strike in the mid 1970s. Kopple has long been an advocate of workers' rights; Harlan County, U.S.A. is less ambivalent in its attitude toward unions than her later American Dream.

Kopple and her crew spent years with the families depicted in the film, documenting the dire straits they put themselves through striking for higher wages: following them to picket in front of the stock exchange in New York, filming interviews with people affected by black lung disease[?], and even catching an attempted murder on tape.

The film won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It has also been dramatized in the 2000 TV movie Harlan County War[?].