Barbara Kopple is one of the most respected
documentary directors of her generation,
with Academy Awards for “Harlan
County” and “American Dream.”
Yet she too is in Sundance with a marvelous,
just-about-completed work in progress
on all three Woodstock music festivals
called “My Generation.”
Filled with music and vivid on-the-scene
reportage, “My Generation”
is a thought-provoking and surprising
answer to the expected question of what
was different and what was the same
about the kids who came out to have
fun in 1969, 1994 and 1999. it is also
a potent case history of how difficult
it can be to get even the most promising
documentaries made and how artistically
rich the payoff can be for perseverance.
Kopple was brought on to film the 1994
event, hence the striking behind-the-scenes
footage detailing how things like sponsorship
deals were worked out. (There was even
an official Woodstock ’94 condom,
which is why “My Generation”
condoms were being handed out here as
promotional items.)
A few months later, Polygram, which
was sponsoring the festival, “got
cold feet about the concert and tried
to stop the filming,” Kopple reports.
“They thought by taking away the
money, of course, I would stop. But
I wouldn’t let a small thing like
money get in my way. Everyone, my family,
my friends, said, ‘Now you’ve
gone overboard,’ but I was so
into it. I just kept doing it myself.”
Kopple ended up putting her own money
and time for six years. When she was
in the finishing stages of editing the
film, the 199 festival was announced,
and Kopple, still without a funding
source, “leapt on it. I said ‘We’re
going.’ It was like a gift.”
Now, with footage of the burning of
concession stands that was the most
visible part of the 1999 event included,
“My Generation” caught a
break. Polygram was sold to Universal
and the film has been completely freed
up for distribution, which Kopple hopes
to get out of its Sundace screening.
“Woodstock has been a pivotal
experience for three generations,”
she says. “It’s the culmination
of so much that has gone on in the 1900s,
and I wanted to show who these generations
are.”
