KOPPLE, Barbara

Nationality: American. Born: New York City, 30 July 1946. Education: Graduated from Northeastern University with degree in psychology. Career: Assisted documentary filmmakers as an editor, sound recordist, and camerawoman; spent four years in coal fields of Harlan County, Kentucky, recording struggles of unionized miners for documentary Harlan County, U.S.A., 1972–76. Awards: Critic's Choice Award, Cannes Film Festival, 1972, for Winter Soldier; Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, designation by Congress as American Film Classic in National Film Registry, Blue Ribbon, Grierson Award, and Emily Award at the American Film Festival, all 1977, all for Harlan County, U.S.A.; Christopher Award, 1977; Mademoiselle Award, 1977; National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, 1970s and 1980s; Blue Ribbon, American Film and Video Festival, 1990, for Out of Darkness; Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award, and Filmmaker's Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, Golden Gate


Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Blue Ribbon at the American Film and Video Festival, Outstanding Achievement from the International Documentary Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Award, and National Society of Film Critics Award, all 1991, all for American Dream; Best Feature Documentary, Director's Guild of America, 1992, for American Dream; Metro Labor Council Award, 1992; Cine Golden Eagle, 1992; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1992; Dorothy Arzner Directing Award, Women in Film, 1993; Outstanding Directorial Achievement from Director's Guild of America, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and Best Special Award from Television Critics Association, all 1993, all for Fallen Champ.

Films as Director:

1972

Winter Soldier (co-d)

1976

Harlan County, U.S.A. (+ sound, pr)

1981

No Nukes (co-d)

1983

Keeping On (+ exec pr)

1989

Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues (+ pr)

1990

Out of Darkness (co-d)

1991

American Dream (+ sound, co-pr)

1992

Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (co-d); Locked Out: Ravenswood

1993

Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson (+ pr)

1994

Century of Women (segment d)

1995

Prisoners of Hope (co-d)

1998

Woodstock '94 (+ pr); Wild Man Blues

1999

A Conversation with Gregory Peck

2000

My Generation

Other Films:

1974

Richard III (pr, sound, ed)

1986

Hurricane Irene (pr)

1995

Nails (segment pr)

Publications

On KOPPLE: books—

Rosenthal, Alan, The Documentary Conscience: A Casebook in FilmMaking, University of California Press, 1980.

Shulevitz, Judith, The Women's Companion to International Films, edited by Annette Kuhn and Susannah Radstone, University of California Press, 1994.

On KOPPLE: articles—

Dunning, Jennifer, "A Woman Film Maker in the Coal Fields," in New York Times, 15 October 1976.

Eder, Richard, "Film Festival: Harlan County," in New York Times, 15 October 1976.

Verr (A. Verrill), "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Variety, 20 Octo-ber 1976.

Maslin, J., "Rich Vein," in Newsweek, 1 November 1976.

"Cinema 5's Probable Harlan County Deal," in Variety, 15 Decem-ber 1976.

Biskind, Peter, "Harlan County, U.S.A.: The Miners' Struggle," in Jump Cut, no. 14, 1977.

Kleinhans, Chuck, "Barbara Kopple Interview," in Jump Cut, no. 14, 1977.

Kaplan, E. A., "Harlan County, U.S.A.: The Documentary Form," in Jump Cut, no. 15, 1977.

Paramentier, Ernest, "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in FilmFacts, vol. 20, no. 12, 1977.

Mills, N., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Dissent, vol. 24, no. 3, 1977.

Howe, I., "Another View of Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Dissent, vol. 24, no. 3, 1977.

Sarris, Andrew, "Films in Focus: In the Winter of His Discontent," in Village Voice, 31 January 1977.

Kauffmann, Stanley, "Stanley Kauffmann on Films: Importances," in New Republic, 12 February 1977.

Blake, R. "The Reel-y Real," in America, 12 February 1977.

Haleff, M., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Film Bulletin, March 1977.

Westerbeck, C. L., Jr., "Women's Work," in Commonweal, 4 March 1977.

McCreadie, M., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Films in Review, April 1977.

McNally, Judith, "The Making of Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Filmmakers Newsletter, May 1977.

Carcassonne, P., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Cinématographe, June 1977.

Giraud, T., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Cahiers du Cinéma, July 1977.

Henry, M., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Positif, July/August 1977.

Crowdus, Gary, "Filming in Harlan (Interviews with Barbara Kopple and Hart Perry)," in Cineaste, Summer 1977.

Jones, E. S., "Harlan County U.S.A.," in Film News, Summer 1977.

Aghed, J., "Entretien avec Barbara Kopple," in Positif, Octo-ber 1977.

Bovier-Lapierre, E., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Cinématographe, October 1977.

Martin, M., "Entretien avec Barbara Kopple," in Ecran, 15 Octo-ber 1977.

Le Peron, S., and L. Skorecki, "Entretien avec Barbara Kopple," in Cahiers du Cinéma, November 1977.

Thirard, P. L., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Positif, November 1977.

Grelier, R., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Revue du Cinéma, Novem-ber 1977.

Odebrant, P., and J. Ohlsson, "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Chaplin, vol. 20, 1978.

Vrdlovec, Z., "Harlanski revir," in Ekran, vol. 3, 1978.

Heijs, J., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Skrien, May 1978.

McCall, A., and A. Tyndall, "Sixteen Working Statements: Notes from Work on a Film in Progress," in Millennium, Spring/Summer 1978.

Forbes, J., "Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Sight and Sound, Sum-mer 1978.

Coleman, J., "Crying out Loud," in New Statesman, 2 June 1978.

King, Noel, "Recent 'Political' Documentary: Notes on Union Maids and Harlan County, U.S.A.," in Screen, vol. 22, 1981.

Ferrario, D., "Harlan County, U.S.A. di Barbara Kopple," in Cineforum, January 1981.

Hoberman, J., "The Non-Hollywood Hustle," in American Film, October 1980.

O'Connor, J. J., "TV: Keeping On, a Drama of Life in a Mill Town," in New York Times, 8 September 1983.

Kaplan, E. A., "Theories and Strategies of the Feminist Documentary," in Millennium, Fall 1982/Winter 1983.

Penley, Constance, "Documentary/Documentation," in CameraObscura Spring/Summer 1985.

Sorensen, S., "Dokumentarisme," in Film & Kino, no. 4, 1987.

Di Mattia, J., "Of Politics and Passion," in International Documentary, Winter 1990/91.

Quindlen, Anna, "Our Bad Dreams," in New York Times, 21 October 1990.

Crowdus, Gary, "American Dream (Interview)," in Cineaste, vol. 18, no. 4, 1991.

Rossi, U., "Per una comunicazione attiva," and "Due scioperi da Oscar nel cinema off Hollywood," in Cineforum, September 1991.

Fink, Leon, "Motion Picture Review: American Dream," in Journalof American History, December 1991.

Legiardi-Laura, Roland, "Barbara Kopple," in BOMB, Winter 1992.

Weinberg, Joel, "Union Maid," in New York, 9 March 1992.

Rule, S., "In Film, a Career of Trying to Balance the Inequalities of Life," in New York Times, 24 March 1992.

Rafferty, Terrence, "No Man's Land," in New Yorker, 23 March 1992.

Brown, G., "O Say Can You See?," in Village Voice, 24 March 1992.

Klawans, Stuart, "American Dream," in Nation, 30 March 1992.

Kelleher, E., "Kopple's Oscar-Winning Dream Explores Harsh Labor Dispute," in Film Journal, April 1992.

Meusel, M., "American Dream," in Film Journal, April 1992.

Linlield, Susie, "Barbara Kopple," in Premiere, April 1992.

Schickel, Richard, "Which Side Are You On?," in Time, 6 April 1992.

Powers, John, "Food for Thought," in New York, 13 April 1992.

Roberts, S., "American Dream Charts Labor's Loss," in New YorkTimes, May 1992.

Karp, A., "American Dream," in Box Office, May 1992.

Meyers, Kate, "American Chronicle: Barbara Kopple," in Entertainment Weekly, 1 May 1992.

Winokur, L.A., "Barbara Kopple (Interview)," in Progressive, Novem-ber 1992.

Tucker, Ken, "Heavyweight Champ," in Entertainment Weekly, February 1993.

Meyers, Kate, "Barbara Kopple's KO Punch," in EntertainmentWeekly, 12 February 1993.

Zoglin, Richard, "Fallen Champ," in Time, 15 February 1993.

Brock, Pope, "Barbara Kopple: A Firebrand Documentary Filmmaker Moves to TV to Tackle Her Latest Subject: Iron Mike Tyson," in People Weekly, 15 February 1993.

Christgau, Georgia, "The Spirit of Resistance and the Second Line," in Labor History, Winter 1993.

Feaster, Felicia, "Fallen Champ," in Film Quarterly, Winter 1993/94.

Espen, Hal, "The Documentarians," in New Yorker, 21 March 1994.

Orvell, Miles, "Documentary and the Power of Interrogation: American Dream and Roger and Me," in Film Quarterly, Winter 1994/95.

Rabinowitz, Paula, "Sentimental Contacts: Dreams and Documents of American Labour," in Media International Australia (North Ryde), November 1996.

"Wind Man Blues: Prova d'orchestra/Barbara Kopple. Woody saisi sur le vif. Sans scénario," an interview with Christian Viviani and Michel Ciment, in Positif (Paris), February 1998.

Barbara Kopple got her start in film working for Albert and David Maysles. In order to make films, she decided it was necessary to learn all aspects of their production. At the Maysles' studio, she became familiar with the craft—from getting coffee to reconstituting trims, no job was trivialized. She became an assistant editor for the Maysles and began working as editor and sound recordist for other producers.

After gaining enough experience and confidence, Kopple decided it was time to direct her own films. Her crews consisted of a camera operator and sound recordist, of which she was the sound recordist. As with most documentaries, such a small crew was an economic necessity, but it also enhanced the filmmaker's intimacy with the subject. According to Kopple, recording sound brought her "deeper into what was happening"; she was "hearing" and participating in the filmic process on multiple levels. As a technician, interviewer, and director, she is both observer and participant. In supervising post-production she becomes the storyteller.

Most of Kopple's independent films require her constant attention to fundraising. Winning the Academy Award for Best Feature-length Documentary for Harlan County, U.S.A. did not ensure funds for another project. While shooting American Dream, rather than process film, she bought freezers to store the exposed rolls until money could be raised for lab expenses. Kopple thinks "small crews are great, but sometimes it's better to have money and hire a sound recordist."

Kopple was influenced by the Maysles brothers and D. A. Pennebaker, exponents of Direct Cinema. Her method of filmmaking, though owing much to her predecessors, is very much a result of form following content. Though her style may differ slightly from film to film because of the organic strategy she employs for each story, there is an overriding consistency to her work. She gives those not normally heard a voice—the audience of most films are her subjects. Her documentaries have become emblematic of social change films.

Most of Kopple's films have no simple beginning—we enter a story that has already begun. The audience may know the outcome, yet we are engaged in the suspense of how we arrived at that point. Her films examine the antecedents of power relationships, how people are affected, respond, and make sense of their own actions and those of others. Though the chronology of a film may shift through history, intercutting past events with the contemporary, we experience the action in the present tense. Her endings are never clean, sometimes with story updates occurring under the end credits. Kopple's films create a discourse that cuts through historical time in an attempt to understand where we are today.

Kopple's films create such intimacy of identity that we feel sure she lived the experience. However, Harlan County, U.S.A. took only thirteen months to make. After reading about the death of Joseph Yablonski, his wife, and daughter, and the formation of Miners for Democracy, she decided to make the film and secured a $10,000 loan from Tom Brandon. The film develops small stories to contextualize a larger narrative.

The Consolidation Coal Mannington Mine Disaster of 1968, the Yablonski family murder in 1970, and the union election places the Harlan strike in a national relationship. History is seen as a growing organism and montage moves the discourse through time. John L. Lewis is cut against Carl Horn, president of Duke Power, as though they were engaged in debate. Yet the film is faithful to and references the chronology of the Harlan strike.

Kopple uses music to remind the audience of our folk storytelling tradition. In geographically isolated regions such as Harlan, music has been a way of sharing experience, creating a unifying identity. In the film music functions to evoke cultural memory and meaning. Though we may be thousands of miles from Harlan, we share a common heritage of labor struggle. The voice of the film is the voice of many. There is no one hero, but a common chorus of purpose uniting gender and race. "Which Side Are You On" functions as Harlan County, U.S.A.'s theme song. The film is about choice. Kopple is asked by Duke Power's thugs to identify herself; there is no question of her allegiance. Kopple thinks that being a woman may have contributed to the local police letting her film in jail. They did not consider her a threat. There is no question that the film threatened Duke Power; the camera is beaten. And the film is very much about violence: everyday life seems harsh, and the strike heightens the brutality. The audience must look at the conflict's viscera—pieces of lung and brains in the dirt—and ultimately the death of striker Lawrence Jones. The strike may be won, but it is a momentary victory. The struggle continues without end through the credits.

Kopple continues themes developed in Harlan County, U.S.A. in American Dream, but the story and issues have become more complicated. Again she films a strike, a labor crisis, and documents the crisis of labor. At issue is whether the union movement will be destroyed by Reaganism, or whether it will transform and once again play an active role in the American drama. The film follows Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union as the rank and file struggles with the International leadership and dissidents among its own membership, as well as labor's traditional antagonist, in this case Hormel and Company.

Again a strike is the motivating force for communality. But because labor is divided—brother pitted against brother—American Dream evokes the heartbreak of the Civil War. The labor movement has lost its innocence, yet Local P-9 seems naive. They lack an historical perspective to labor negotiations. When the strike is going well they are enthusiastic, but they succumb to moral self-righteousness when frustrated. Recognizing stasis in the International, they hire an outside labor consultant, Ray Rogers of "Corporate Campaign," whose strategy is to effect economic distress on Hormel, build solidarity with other locals, and make the strike "newsworthy." He packages the strike for television, but we are not sure which side of the camera he prefers to be on; as he seems to be playing a role from Norma Rae (Rogers was the organizer at J. P. Stevens). Authenticity becomes problematic.

As in Harlan County, U.S.A., there is no doubt that Kopple's camera is on the side of labor. However, in American Dream the camera re-positions itself to show the conflicting points-of-view within the labor movement. The camera is with Local P-9 leader Jim Guyette, then with Lewie Anderson, director of the International Union's Meatpacking Division. It is in a car with dissidents as they defy the Local and go back to work. But the camera does not cross the picket line with them; it watches the dissidents go through the gate from the vantage point of the strikers.

In American Dream, Kopple utilizes various documentary styles. Direct Cinema techniques are combined with conventional sit-down interviews and narration. The voice of the film is that of labor, but unlike Harlan County, U.S.A., American Dream employs narration. Guyette and Anderson provide commentary for their own stories. And Kopple personally announces voice-over information necessary to move the story forward. As the film proceeds to its end, we are aware of a distance and dislocation of voice and character not experienced in Harlan County, U.S.A. The grand narrative of American labor is fractured, and we wonder if the Dream can ever be reconstructed. The film ends with an American Graffiti-style montage of character updates. But it is the 1980s, and although there may be personal change, one story remains the same: company profits continue to grow while workers are paid less.

Kopple thinks of herself as a filmmaker of traditional dramas, examining how people behave in moments of crisis and change. Her films question the construct of the "American Dream" and the price we pay in its attainment; how this "Dream" influences and informs our collective and individual identity and what we value; and how we are equipped to deal with and interpret issues of justice and change.

—Judy Hoffman

KOPPLE, Barbara 1946–

PERSONAL

Full name, Barbara J. Kopple; born July 30, 1946, in Bear Mountain (some sources cite New York), NY; father, a textile firm owner; mother, a homemaker; married Hart Perry (a director and cinematographer; divorced); married Gene Carroll (a writer and labor organizer); children: (first marriage) Nicholas Perry. Education: Attended Northeastern University, 1973; also attended New School for Social Research and a college in West Virginia. Avocational Interests: Playing tennis, attending films and concerts.

Addresses: Agent—David Greenblatt, Endeavor, 9601 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Manager— Glenn Rigberg, Rigberg–Rugolo Company, 1180 South Beverly Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90035.

Career: Director, producer, writer, film editor, and sound technician. Worked with the filmmakers Albert and David Maysles. Also worked as a camera operator; camera operator for a video on Young Republicans for Richard M. Nixon shown at a Republican National Convention, and sound technician for a film on the Year of the Woman shown at a Democratic National Convention; also made commercials for companies such as Reebok.

Awards, Honors: Academy Award, best documentary feature, 1977, Special Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 1977, and Directors Guild of America Award, all for Harlan County, U.S.A., which was also selected as an American film classic for the National Film Registry, U.S. Congress, c. 1990; Academy Award (with Arthur Cohn), best documentary feature, Grand Jury Prize, Filmmakers Trophy, and Audience Award, all Sundance Film Festival, all documentary category, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, best documentary, and Distinguished Achievement Award, International Documentary Association, all 1991, National Society of Film Critics Award, best documentary, and Directors Guild of America Award, outstanding directorial achievement in documentary/actuality category, both 1992, all for American Dream; Dorothy Arzner Directors Award, Crystal awards, Women in Film, 1993; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding individual achievement in informational programming, 1993, and Directors Guild of America Award, outstanding directorial achievement in documentary/actuality category, 1994, both for Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson; Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award, American Film Institute, 1994; Emmy Award nomination (with others), outstanding informational series, 1995, for A Century of Women; Annual CableACE Award (with others), National Cable Television Association, outstanding sports information series, 1996, for "Nails," Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel; Directors Guild of America Award (with others), outstanding directorial achievement in a nighttime dramatic series, 1998, for "The Documentary," Homicide: Life on the Street; National Board of Review Award, best documentary, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, best feature documentary, and nomination for Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival, all 1998, for Wild Man Blues; Lifetime Achievement Award, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 1998; John Cassavetes Award, Denver International Film Festival, 1999; Career Award, DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival, 2001; Jury Award (with Thomas Haneke), Philadelphia Film Festival, best documentary, 2001, for My Generation; honoree of Charles Guggenheim Symposium, Silver-docs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, 2004; other awards include Critics Choice Award, Cannes International Film Festival, Christopher Award, Muse Award, New York Women in Film, Irene Diamond Human Rights Achievement Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

CREDITS

Film Director; Documentaries:

Winter Soldier, 1972.

Harlan County, U.S.A., Almi Cinema 5, 1977.

(With Haskell Wexler) Director of documentary footage, No Nukes (concert film), 1980.

American Dream, Prestige Films, 1990.

(With Danny Schecter) Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy, 1992.

Wild Man Blues, Fine Line, 1997.

Woodstock '94, 1998.

My Generation, Solaris, 2000.

Film Producer; Documentaries:

Producer of documentary footage, Harlan County, U.S. A., Almi Cinema 5, 1977.

Field producer, In Our Hands (concert film), Richter Productions, 1984.

American Dream, Prestige Films, 1990.

Wild Man Blues, Fine Line, 1997.

Woodstock '94, 1998.

My Generation, Solaris, 2000.

Executive producer, WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, Globalvision, 2004.

Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight, 2004.

Film Editor; Documentaries:

Winter Soldier, 1972.

Editor of the film Living off the Land.

Film Sound Technician; Documentaries:

Harlan County, U.S.A., Almi Cinema 5, 1977.

No Nukes (concert film), 1980.

El Salvador: Another Vietnam, Icarus Films, 1981.

American Dream, Prestige Films, 1990.

Wild Man Blues, Fine Line, 1997.

My Generation, Solaris, 2000.

Film Work; Other; Documentaries:

Production assistant, El Salvador—La decision de vencer (los primos frutos), 1981.

Also affiliated with the film Out of Darkness: The Mine Workers Story, 1990.

Film Director:

Havoc, MDP Worldwide, 2004.

Film Appearances:

Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment (documentary; also known as Cinema verite—Le moment decisif), National Film Board of Canada, 2000.

Television Executive Producer; Series:

I Married..., VH1, beginning 2004.

Television Work; Miniseries:

(With others) Director, A Century of Women, TBS, 1994.

Executive producer and director, The Hamptons, ABC, 2002.

Television Director; Specials:

"Keeping On," Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues, broadcast on American Playhouse, PBS, 1981.

Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, NBC, 1993.

Gail Sheehy's New Passages, ABC, 1996.

(With others) Keeping America's Promise, Fox, 1997.

Defending Our Daughters: The Rights of Women in the World, Lifetime, 1998.

Friends for Life: Living with AIDS, The Disney Channel, 1998.

A Conversation with Gregory Peck, TCM, 1999.

In Harm's Way, Arts and Entertainment, 2004.

Television Executive Producer; Specials:

"Keeping On," Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues, broadcast on American Playhouse, PBS, 1981.

Gail Sheehy's New Passages, ABC, 1996.

Defending Our Daughters: The Rights of Women in the World, Lifetime, 1998.

Friends for Life: Living with AIDS, The Disney Channel, 1998.

Learning for Life: Kids and Learning Differences, The Disney Channel, 2000.

Television Producer; Specials:

Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, NBC, 1993.

"Nails," Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, HBO, 1995.

"U.S. Wrestling Team," Sports Illustrated Olympic Special: A Prelude to the Games, NBC, 1996.

Keeping America's Promise, Fox, 1997.

A Conversation with Gregory Peck, TCM, 1999.

American Standoff, HBO, 2002.

Television Director; Episodic:

"The Documentary," Homicide: Life on the Street (also known as H: LOTS and Homicide), NBC, 1997.

"Pit Bull Sessions," Homicide: Life on the Street (also known as H: LOTS and Homicide), NBC, 1998.

"Out o' Time," Oz, HBO, 1999.

"Self Defense," Homicide: Life on the Street (also known as H: LOTS and Homicide), NBC, 1999.

I Married..., VH1, 2004.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Indie Truth: An Inquiry into the Documentary, 2002.

Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:

The 49th Annual Academy Awards, 1977.

The 75th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2003.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

Guest, The View, ABC, 2002.

RECORDINGS

Video Works:

Affiliated with the video Hurricane Irene, c. 1988.

WRITINGS

Screenplays; Documentaries:

Harlan County, U.S.A., Almi Cinema 5, 1977.

My Generation, Solaris, 2000.

Teleplays; Specials:

Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, NBC, 1993.

OTHER SOURCES

Periodicals:

Backstage, April 17, 1998, p. 23.

Entertainment Weekly, February 12, 1993, p. 44.

Guardian, May 7, 1998, p. T10.

New York Times, March 24, 1992, p. C11.

People Weekly, February 15, 1993, p. 65.

Premiere, April, 1992, p. 60.

Shoot, November 24, 1995, p. 1.

Variety, October 30, 2000, p. S3.

KOPPLE, BARBARA

KOPPLE, BARBARA (1946– ), U.S. director-producer. Born in New York City and raised in Scarsdale, New York, Kopple graduated with a degree in psychology from Northeastern University. She began her career by working for documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles as an assistant editor. She then co-directed Winter Soldier (1972), a documentary about U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. Her first solo project, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976), which documented a 1973 coal miners' strike against the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky, earned Kopple an Academy Award for a feature-length documentary. In 1981, she directed the made-for-television film Keeping On, a fictional story built around a labor dispute in a Southern town. Kopple's American Dream (1991), the story of the Hormel Food strike in the mid-1980s, earned her a second Academy Award and a Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in documentaries. In 1993, she received her second Directors Guild of America award for Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson. For Wild Man Blues (1997), Kopple followed Woody *Allen around Europe as he toured with his jazz band. In 1998, she released Woodstock '94 and followed up with My Generation (2000), a documentary that explored the differences and similarities of the youth cultures present at the different Woodstock concerts. In 2005, Kopple's Bearing Witness looked at female journalists working in combat zones.

[Adam Wills (2^nd ed.)]