Harlan County, U.S.A.

Selected as part of our series Champ libre by Laurence Turcotte-Fraser, co-director of Ma cité évincée, currently playing.

A hard-hitting account of a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ often violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police and company thugs. Against a backdrop of spellbinding music, featuring legendary country and bluegrass artists such as Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning and Florence Reece, the camera acts as witness to a heartbreaking thirteen-months struggle between a community fighting for survival and a company bent only on profit.

Best documentary feature – Academy Awards ceremony 1977