"Harlan County, USA" - IFC at 2pm ET - No way to watch this without choking up a bit.

[Bozita]

http://www.ifc.com/

1976 | 103 min. | Director: Barbara Kopple | TV14

Director Barbara Kopple's look at a 13-month coal miners' strike that took place between 1973 and 1974 in Harlan County, KY, is one of the great films about labor troubles, though not for a sense of objectivity. Kopple lived among the miners and their families off and on during the four years the entire story played out, and it's clear in every frame of the film that her sympathies lie with the miners and not their bosses at Eastover Mining, owned by Duke Power Company. Kopple's camera focuses on the desperate plight of people still living in shacks with no indoor plumbing and working dangerous jobs with little security and few safety rules. The miners are determined to join the United Mine Workers, and the company is determined to break the strike with scabs, who are even more desperate than the men with jobs. The miners eventually win a new contract, though it turns out that some of the benefits they had fought for were not included in the final deal. The filmmaker's strong identification with one side of a labor struggle doesn't make for a balanced historical record, but it did provide the right stuff for a powerfully dramatic film.

[panader0]

1. I saw it a few weeks ago and agree

Thumb's up!

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I must have watched this 10 times over the years

and it just gets more poignant with each successive viewing. Highly recommended.

[Bozita]

3. News about Utah coal mine disaster from a few days ago ...

I thought it fits nicely with this broadcast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/us/08cnd-mine.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

May 9, 2008
Utah Mine Disaster Was Preventable, Report Says

By IAN URBINA

The general manager and possibly other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where 9 miners died in August 2007, hid information from federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, according to a Congressional investigation whose results were released Thursday.

The report also said that the mining company should never have submitted a request to remove coal from the section of mine where the collapse occurred, and that federal mining officials should not have approved the proposal, because of foreseeable dangers.

The Congressional committee conducting the investigation sent a referral letter late last month to the Department of Justice asking the department to investigate whether the mine manager, Laine W. Adair, on his own or in conspiracy with others from the mining company, willfully concealed facts or made intentionally false statements to federal mining investigators about the condition of the mine before the August disaster.

On Aug. 6, roof supports in a section of the mine gave way in a major collapse that registered 3.9 on the Richter scale and left six miners fatally entombed. Ten days later, three more miners who were working as rescuers died after more tunnels fell.

The deaths were avoidable, the 150-page report said, because five months before the August disaster in the north section of the mine, a similar collapse had occurred in a southern section, offering clear “red flags” indicating that the mine was unstable.

more...

[Omaha Steve]

4. Thanks

I just tuned in a couple minutes after it started.

[libnnc]

5. my favorite documentary by far

[Billy Burnett]

6. Here's another great doc. An Injury to One.

It's online at google video.


Frank Little - An Injury to One!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4218679084249257684&q=an+injury+to+one&total=3199&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

[Billy Burnett]

7. Which Side Are You On? by Florence Reese

http://www.ocap.ca/songs/whichsid.html


Which Side Are You On?

by Florence Reese

Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell

(Chorus)
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

[killbotfactory]

8. This is a great movie, but what the hell do they mean by "not balanced"?

Did she not show the upside to people living in shacks and being horribly exploited in an extremely dangerous job? Documentaries shouldn't be balanced if one side is clearly in the wrong. Do we strive for "balance" when we look back at slavery and the holocaust? I never hear people complaining about how we are never told the good things about those awful events.

Sometimes the facts of the matter make one side look awful, that doesn't mean we should balance them out with lies.

[SeattleGirl]

9. Just watched this a few weeks ago.

Great film.

[reggie the dog]

10. Thunder Road

is a great film dealing with Harlan county and the closing of illegal moonshine stills in the 50's. Complete with the good ole boys teen aged kids sifting their hands through sacks of cannabis seeds saying that Harlan county would be wide open in no time. Remember that Robert Mitchum was one of the first movie stars who was sent to jail for cannabis possession back in 48. Michum was the starring actor, producer, and co wrote the screenplay so I think the sacks of hemp seeds were his little protest.

[countryjake]

11. Trailer here...

Harlan County USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCiVMngILEI

Every person who no longer sees the importance of Union organizing should watch this movie!

Thank you for posting about this!