Barbara Kopple completes her trilogy on labor rights with “Union Town.” Following screenings at Venice and Toronto, it’s now heading to Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, where Variety spoke to her about the film. Kopple has won two Academy Awards for her docs “Harlan County U.S.A.,” about striking miners in Kentucky, and “American Dream,” about the 1985-1986 Hormel strike. The latter was shared with Arthur Cohn.
Those experiences shaped me as a filmmaker and as a person,” she adds. That’s what drew me back. We’re living through another important moment in labor history.” After the pandemic, many delivery workers started to feel they were “disposable,” observes Kopple.
They didn’t think about those who delivered their packages or worked in the warehouses. That’s one of the reasons for this film: so that people can see and feel who these workers are. And never, ever treat them as ‘disposable’ again.” Ultimately, Kopple wanted to tell a “human story.” “I like to dig deep and really get to know people.
I really love and respect them. They are my heroes; they’re so courageous and passionate. But you don’t often get to know them,” she notes.
I really think documentaries can create empathy.” Some of the workers she’s interviewing are honest about their disappointment in the system, and also in the American Dream. I think he still plays, but this is as far as he can go right now until he’s able to become a naturalized citizen, which is very difficult under our current administration, if not impossible,” she says. That is, until they start experiencing kinship with those who understand their situation only too well.
He shows them that you can’t break a big stack of kindling, but you can break one piece of it. It’s his way of teaching them about solidarity and the importance of working together so that you’re never alone. That’s how you win.” According to Kopple, documentary filmmakers already know this to be true.
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