information
harlan county, usa is an oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the "brookside strike"
or "bloody harlan", an 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, kentucky in
1973.directed by barbara kopple, who has long been an advocate of workers' rights.
in this documentary about labor tension in the coal-mining industry, director barbara kopple films a
strike in rural kentucky. after the coal miners at the brookside mine join a union, the owners refuse the
labor contract. once the miners start to strike, the owners of the mine respond by hiring scabs to fill the
jobs of the regular employees. the strike, which lasts more than a year, frequently becomes violent,
with guns produced on both sides.
harlan county, usa is an oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the "brookside strike"
or "bloody harlan", an 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, kentucky in
1973.directed by barbara kopple, who has long been an advocate of workers' rights.
in this documentary about labor tension in the coal-mining industry, director barbara kopple films a
strike in rural kentucky. after the coal miners at the brookside mine join a union, the owners refuse the
labor contract. once the miners start to strike, the owners of the mine respond by hiring scabs to fill the
jobs of the regular employees. the strike, which lasts more than a year, frequently becomes violent,
with guns produced on both sides.
