I heard about Harlan County Miners for Democracy. Still time to catch films at @reframefilmfestival, We have tons of reviews and interviews from Sundan, Your Oscar nominees for Best #Documentary Feature, New Films from Kopple, Porter, Pozdorovkin Set for DOC NYC, Free Money Review: The Politics of Giving, Dry Ground Burning Review: An Empowering Favela Hybrid, Blue Box Review: The Big Moral Problem of History, Kingston Canadian Film Festival Brings the Circuit Full Circle, Available Light Film Festival Announces 2023 Award Winners, IF/Then x Hulu Short Documentary Lab Opens to Applications from LGBTQIA+ Storytellers, Our Body Review: Claire Simons Intimately Epic Documentary. In Episode 2 of the The Drunk Projectionist, producer and host Todd Melby interviewed Barbara Kopple about Harlan County USA, her impressive first film.The 1976 documentary won an Academy Award. Some picketers carried weapons that they did not use. Boy, that Freedom House sure sounds like a bunch of fascists, dunnit? Barbara Kopple: I dont know. It takes place in 1974 and follows a strike by Kentucky coal miners, as well as efforts by UMW reformers to kick out the union's corrupt president, Tony Boyle. I always listen to a radio station called NPR. Bill was a 1961 Meade County High School graduate and a member of First Baptist Church Henryville. R S. Warsaw. save the topic. I didnt care. The series revolves around the inhabitants and culture in the Appalachian mountains area of eastern Kentucky, specifically Harlan County where many of the main characters grew up. . and charged with the killing.Mr. Barbara Kopple: That was that scene, and little did I realize that he was very tough, and all the people told me after, Youre in big trouble now!. And theres the films unusually potent soundscape, which Kopple herself recorded: the high rasp of a miner warning of an imminent explosion; the union bullhorn cutting the morning air calling for picketers; the hubbub of a street parade; the wall-to-wall traditional music, including political calls to arms, songs of joy and plaintive grief and calls to solidarity, that chain the present to the past. It was perhaps the greatest union rebound ever. . The whole thing was a wonderful moment. California labor activist Caroline Decker first became involved in union activities during the Harlan County War, when she and her sister participated in relief activities for striking miners. Eastover also hired prisoners to 'provide security' in and around the mine. Where did the Harlan County War take place? This was partially successful until County Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a mine owner himself, issued an injunction against the miners allowing only 3 people to picket at each of the two entrances to the mine. Revisiting Barbara Kopples Harlan County, USA. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Barbara Kopple: We were all in a meeting. Todd Melby: Another scene that I really like I love all the scenes with the women behind the scenes organizing and debating what they should do and telling their own stories. They had invited executives from Duke Power and Eastover Mining to meet with them, but they refused. Still, the Wall Street bankers and East Coast industrialists who owned the vast seams of the Southern coalfields would not give up without a fight, and Harlan remained Bloody Harlan. Armed company guards and sheriffs deputies patrolled the steep mountains and narrow valleys of the Kentucky Appalachians. Nonviolent picketing comes to Harlan mine. After Arnold Miller won, I wanted to see if he would keep his promise. Neurological Surgery Orthopedic Spine Surgery . TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The song Which Side Are You On? became the anthem of a reborn United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) union in the 1930s, then an anthem for [], A journal of theory and strategy published by Jacobin, Taking Back Left Parties From the Brahmins, occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train, Miners and their families responded by occupying the railroad tracks. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. I just felt honored to be able to photograph it. Fest to open with drama RICEBOY SLEEPS. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. The miners had guns and the strikebreakers had guns. Everybody had guns. A miner was killed by a company foreman. Still, there is a spirit that lives in Harlan, along with the ghosts of battles past. As Basil Collins got out of his truck, you could hear the guns clicking, the safeties being taken off. Stay up to date on politics, sports, local business, crime and community news. With a population of 1,504, Harlan has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. The miners lay in ambush for cars carrying company men, and shot at them. -Got shot in the damn head. In doing so, they would also ensure two secondary objectives: establishing a worker's Safety Committee and increased hospital and medical benefits. The strikers won, but only after thirteen months and the murder of a young miner, Lawrence Jones, aged twenty-two. Violence continued against the workers and community. Harlan miners started to organize in the 1920s, a struggle that culminated in a long and violent strike in 1931. There are many dangling questions, large and small. "Silly Bill"/"Old Time Cinda" - The Hill Billies These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. What are the physical state of oxygen at room temperature? The union staff, now led by a Montana official, Tony Boyle, encamped in the union offices and rarely ventured into Appalachia, where the depression of the 30s seemed never to have ended. If you wasn't a gun thug, you was a union man. Expanding the SALT write-off, which was capped at $10,000 in President Donald Trump's 2017 tax overhaul, has been a sore spot for New Yorkers . In 1969, Tony Boyle was challenged for the UMWA presidency by Jock . I've been watching Harlan County U.S.A, maybe the best documentary ever made about unions in the U.S. Scott describes the murder of Lawrence Jones by Billy Bruner. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. Eastover agreed to drop all charges against the striking miners in court and before the National Labor Relations Board. The population was 1,745 at the 2010 census, down from 2,081 . In Harlan County there wasn't no neutral. Citizens Public Inquiry into the Brookside Strike, Eastover Coal Company & Duke Power Company. Some of these prisoners had been convicted of serious crimes including manslaughter and homicide. Somebody said, Arent you worried? She said, Im not worried if I shoot some of my breast or titty off because I have plenty of that!. The death shocked the community and received widespread attention throughout the nation. It's a reminder of the county's heroic history of struggle and solidarity. that's too bad. I probably still am. Welcome to Beba's world: we're all just visiting. It was the latest violent incident in Harlan County, long a scene of labor unrest. Women of the community responded to Judge Bogg's injunction. Dr. Harlan J. Bruner is a Neurosurgeon in Lawrenceville, GA. Find Dr. Bruner's phone number, address, insurance information and more. Distinctive and archaic, sometimes hard to decipher, it forms a through-line of vernacular poetry in the film in words worthy of a Cormac McCarthy or Elmore Leonard. <p> Get your payments electronically sent to your checking or savings account to help achieve your goals. This gives it a little extra dollop of bleakness. At the peak of the first strike, 5,800 miners were idle and only 900 working. Youll either be a union man or a thug for J.H. Days Of Darkness-- John Ed Pearce 5. Yet it is also true that Harlan County,USAdoes not have the clarity and rigour of what we would usually think of as a well-made documentary. The 'security guards' and local police often physically removed people from the picket line in order to let cars pass. The Kentucky National Guard was called in. Kopple trained in the cinema verit tradition as an intern for Albert and David Maysles on films such as SalesmanandGimme Shelterand later on the Vietnam activist filmsWinter SoldierandHearts and Minds. I have never seen better acting. The film's very title, Harlan County, USA is emblematic of class struggle. That made me think a lot too. Barbara Kopple: Yes, to the picket line where they were bringing in the scabs. Todd Melby: I want to ask you also about opening shots and closing shots and the importance of them. Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On gives the iconic singer her due. First Boyle has Joseph Yablonski, who ran against him for the union presidency, murdered along with Yablonski's wife and daughter. Lastly, of course, is the gruesome slaying of striking miner Lawrence Jones by scab Bill Bruner. I didnt get hurt because they kicked the Nagra. Whats not good about it, then? On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. They found sympathy there with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores vanish. Bill Bruner William Herbert Bruner, Jr., 82, of Owensboro, died January 6, 2021 at Norton Hospital in Louisville, KY. During the 20th century, it was often a center of labor strife between coal mine owners and union workers, especially in the Harlan County War of the 1930s. Married Diana Jones on They were married Nov. 5, 1973. Barbara Kopple: No. The Global NonviolentAction Database is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationallicense unless otherwise noted. New machinery would transform underground mining but at the expense of the coal miners themselves. The name comes from the nearly century-long and sometimes violent struggle between coal companies and workers seeking to unionize. Florence Reece wrote the song. [4]:32 Only three of Harlan's incorporated towns were not owned by mines, hungry and evicted workers and their families sought refuge in them, primarily in the town of Evarts. It outlawed yellow-dog contracts, company unions, blacklists and discrimination on basis of union activity, all tactics employed by coal companies. Youre not really supposed to do that, but they did, and it was very filmic. Afterward I tore a sheet from a calendar on the wall and wrote the words to 'Which Side Are You On?' The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". [6][7][8] The most violent attack by mine workers occurred on May 5, 1931 and became known as the Battle of Evarts. Heres just one example, from around the 80-minute mark of the film, when two young men show the filmmakers the place where their friend was shot minutes ago. IN Lowell W Smith R I. Urbarva. Households with a computer, percent, 2017-2021. Barbara Kopple: I dont think I was brave, I think I was just young and when youre young, youre invincible. It had a great impression on me throughout the rest of my career. LANGUAGES SPOKEN English. The Harlan County War, or Bloody Harlan, was a series of coal mining-related skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. POV engages filmmakers and film lovers in conversations about the art of non-fiction. Barbara Kopple: I never felt that. Shot in the face with a shotgun. Eastover and Duke brought in replacement workers at the beginning of the strike. In the early 70s in Harlan County, Kentucky, which had always been a place where you live and you die by your gun, they also had Bloody Harlan County where people had fought for the right to have a union and many people died. Liam Lacey is a freelance writer for Original-Cin.ca and POV, Canadas premiere magazine about documentaries and independent films. The 103-minute film reaches its first dramatic climax at around the hour mark, when the Womens Club stands in the roadway to the mine, singing and facing down the sheriff and the scab labor in a convoy behind him. The union organized a divestment campaign, "Dump Duke," in which people were encouraged to sell any stock in Duke Power Company in May of 1974. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Bill was retired from Kroger and was a member of Cumberland Presbyterian Church. There followed a decade of strikes in the coalfields, often wildcat strikes by some 40,000 young members, many veterans of the war in Vietnam. (Kopple says she and her crew were beaten until the strikers rescued them.) https://povmagazine.com/kingston-canadian-film-festival-announces-2023-line-up/. See the wiki page Kentucky Probate Records for . InHarlan County,USA, she usually adheres to the fly-on-the-wall approach, but is inconsistent. Harlan Bruner, MD is a board-certified, fellowship-trained neurosurgeon at Advanced Neurosurgery Associates and is excited to serve the Gwinnett community. By the end of the year, the UMWA was once again the nations largest union; it would go on to bankroll the organizing of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the labor upsurge of the 30s. Organizer Garfield Lewis wrote, The people have been so starved out that they are flocking into the Union by the thousands . Billy C. Bruner As I watched the movie, I wasnt exactly sure what was happening, just that it was chaos. [Bloody] Harlan County was happening, so I went and stayed there for 13 months. The Harlan County War, or Bloody Harlan, was a series of coal mining-related skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky during the 1930s. Mr. Miller attended a rally last Thursday after a parade in Harlan. Here is an edited version of that conversation. [4]:47, In the wake of the UMW failure, the Communist National Miners Union (NMU) made a brief play for Harlan County. Leave a review. Follow, Now on HBO/Crave, Oscar nominee ALL THAT BREATHES is feat of visual poetry about how we treat our fellow animals and humans https://povmagazine.com/all-that-breathes-review-a-wing-and-a-prayer/, Pamela Anderson enjoyed a homecoming for the Canadian premiere of PAMELA, A LOVE STORY in Toronto last night https://povmagazine.com/pamela-anderson-attends-canadian-premiere-of-documentary-in-toronto/, Kingston Canadian Film Festival announces livline-up of homegrown favourites for #KCFF23. Anyone can read what you share. Barbara Kopple: Harlan County, USA; that was my first ever film that I did on my own. We would drive to Tennessee to get the film. Today, US coal comes mostly from the Western plains, dug out by huge earth-moving machinery and carried to the coasts on mile-long, dust-spewing trains. Rank-and-file miners responded with a series of wildcat strikes, in 1964, 1966, and 1971, and in 1969 they won the great West Virginia Black Lung Strike, one of the few political strikes in US history. [4]:39 The citizens of Harlan, for their part, lost any illusions they may have held about impartiality in law enforcement. He was born on May 1, 1938 in Owensboro to the late William & Gertrude Bruner. Working with patients on their unique treatment plan that meets their family needs and health goals so they can return back . [15] The 1976 documentary film Harlan County, USA, winner of the 1977 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, focuses on similar labor violence of the 1970s but refers to the 1930s violence as context. This contract is a message to every nonunion coal operator in the land that coalmining families have had their fill of deathtrap mines, starvation wages and meager benefits in return for their labor.. [4]:46 They operated under Sheriff J. H. Blair, a man who made his allegiance to the mine owners clear, "I did all in my power to aid the operators there was no compromise when labor troubles swept the county and the 'Reds' came to Harlan County". By June the strike was over; union leaders were banished from the mines and 44 men stood trial. Wow. Which side are you on? Don't they have a shred of conscience? Billy Carroll Bruner, 39, a foreman at the Eastover mine, was wounded in . You have to be on one side or the other. . Songwriter Florence Reece reported, Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men came to our house in search of Sam that's my husband he was one of the union leaders. A UMWA organizer who welcomed us displayed a revolver on the dashboard of his car. Walter Russell Mead is another. Does Kopple go overboard in portraying the Appalachian proletariat as so socially progressive? The U.M.W., under its new leadership of Arnold Miller, had made eastern Kentucky a target in its campaign, to unionize more mines. 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