Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a 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. With a haunting soundtrack—featuring legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, David Morris, Sarah Ogan 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.

 

Film Info:

· United States

· 1976

· 104 minutes

· Color/Black and White

· 1.33:1

· English

· Spine #334

 

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

 

· New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Barbara Kopple, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

· Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker

· Making-of documentary featuring interviews with Kopple, crew members, and strike participants featured in the film

· Outtakes from the film

· Interview with bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens

· Interview with filmmaker John Sayles

· Panel discussion from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival featuring Kopple and critic Roger Ebert

· Trailer

· English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

· PLUS: Essays by film critic Michael Atkinson and musician and writer Jon Weisberger

· Cover by Eric Skillman