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The Talking Pictures Film Club: Harlan County, USA (1973)

Thursday, June 12, 2025
10:30 am11:30 am
845 Philadelphia Street
Indiana, PA 15701
US

What is The Talking Pictures Film Club?

We're a group who gather together over our shared love of movies to discuss our favorites, the themes, genres, and performances of each month's picks. Films will be available to borrow in DVD format at the circulation desk and, when available, we will also let you know where you can stream the films at home. After we've watched the movie, we'll meet on the second Thursday morning of each month for friendly conversation.

This month's pick: Harlan County, USA (1973)
Genre: Documentary
Streaming options:

Plot Summary:

In 1973, when the Brookside coal miners voted to join the United Mine Workers union, the Duke Power Company refused to sign the union's contact. The struggle that broke out between the company and the workers was brilliantly documented by Barbara Kopple in this Academy Award winning documentary. With a haunting country and bluegrass soundtrack, Harlan County USA is a powerful, sometimes heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
Harlan County USA (variously written with and without a comma) is a 1976 American documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike",[1] a 1973 effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 49th Academy Awards. It was directed and produced by filmmaker Barbara Kopple, then early in her filmmaking career. A former VISTA volunteer, she had worked on other documentaries, especially as an advocate of workers' rights.

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