After the coal miners at Brookside Mine in southeast Kentucky vote to form a union, Duke Power Company refuses to acknowledge their labor contract. A year-long strike effort ensues, which becomes increasingly violent for the miners and their families. Wives soon join the picket line, facing off against scabs and local sheriffs, in this historic and groundbreaking documentary.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 1976
Winner, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

When employees at a Hormel meatpacking plant in Minnesota begin to lose their benefits, the local union endorses a strike. However, complications arise when the union's national branch doesn't follow suit. As the strike drags on, friends become enemies, families are divided, and the very fabric of this quintessential American town is threatened.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 1990
Winner, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

Social justice leaders Marc Morial of National Urban League and Janet Murguía of UnidosUS join forces to fight for the nation's political future, driven by a mutual determination not to be “the generation that allows progress to slip.” These two dynamic trailblazers work together to navigate through the political turmoil that the COVID-19 pandemic left in its wake, rallying their communities in the process.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2022
Centerpiece Film, DOCNYC
International Premiere, IDFA

In April 1980, eight teams of trained Delta Force soldiers attempted to end the Iran hostage crisis. As soldiers share the first-person testimony of this ill-fated mission, the film draws upon never-before-heard audiotapes from inside the White House as well as new interviews with hostages, Iranian citizens, and President Carter himself.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2019
World Premiere, Toronto International Film Festival

Located in idyllic Algonquin Park, Camp Pathfinder invites children from across the country to spend a few weeks in Canada's wild backcountry. Increasingly affected by the growing global refugee crisis, camp director Mike Sladden decides to bring a group of displaced boys from war-torn Syria and Iraq to spend their summer at the camp.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2018
World Premiere, DOCNYC

When an Olympic-bound diver announces her gender transition, she invites her YouTube followers along for every moment of the raw and tumultuous journey. Bolstered by the unconditional love and support from her family, Gigi discovers the possibility of a more authentic life.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2017
World Premiere, Sundance Film Festival

In 1990, a prominent small-town physician was arrested for the murder of his wife, Noreen; after 12-year-old son Collier bares his soul on the witness stand, his testimony eventually leads to his father's conviction. 26 years later, Collier Landry returns to Mansfield, Ohio, still seeking his own sense of closure as he reckons with the familial trauma that shaped his life.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2017
International Premiere, IDFA

In the most challenging year of her life, gregarious soul singer Sharon Jones confronts a pancreatic cancer diagnosis while touring with her band, the Dap-Kings. As Sharon struggles to rediscover her voice, the film uncovers the willful spirit of a powerful woman determined to do the very thing that everyone told her was impossible - following her dreams.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2015
World Premiere, Toronto International Film Festival

A vivid look at the country’s oldest continuously published weekly magazine, the film charts a journey into the soul of American journalism. With unfettered access and unfiltered honesty, we follow the day-to-day pressures and challenges of the publication's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel during a moment of national turmoil.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2015

There have been seven suicides in the Hemingway family; rather than hide from the past, Mariel Hemingway has chosen to face the family history of mental illness with clarity and deliberation. Tracing their struggles back to her grandfather Ernest, Mariel reflects upon her relationships and her career as she considers how to shape the family narrative into something more hopeful for her own daughters.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2013
World Premiere, Sundance Film Festival

Almost eight years after the tragedy at Columbine High School, history repeated itself - thirty-three students were killed in a shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Guided by survivor Colin Goddard, the film takes an in-depth look at the issue of gun control as director Barbara Kopple interviews both pro-gun and anti-gun advocates alike in an effort to shed light on this complicated issue.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 2011

In 2003, The Chicks were at the top of their game as one of the nation's most successful country acts. However, after the US invasion of Iraq, outspoken singer Natalie Maines publicly criticizes President Bush, and the band is soon blacklisted by radio stations across the nation. The ensuing firestorm threatens not only their lives, but the very idea of free speech in America.

dir. Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck, 2006
World Premiere, Toronto International Film Festival

Following five intrepid female journalists and their year-long experiences across battle-torn Iraq in 2003, this documentary showcases not only the horrors of war but the dedication of these women amidst their own private struggles and sacrifices.

dir. Barbara Kopple, Marijana Wotton, 2005
Winner, Golden Eagle Award at CINE

Legendary actor Gregory Peck was always known for his integrity both on and off-screen over the course of his storied and successful career. Now, as Peck performs a one-man retrospective stage show marked by keen storytelling and a gracious sense of humor, the film paints a rare, intimate profile of an American icon from a wholly different generation.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 1999
World Premiere, Cannes Film Festival

Borrowing its name from a jazz composition sometimes attributed to Louis Armstrong, the film chronicles director Woody Allen and his love of early 20th century New Orleans music, as he tours Europe with his New Orleans Jazz Band. At the same time, Allen's contentious relationship with Soon-Yi Previn soon escalates to a dramatic crescendo at a fateful family lunch.

dir. Barbara Kopple, 1997
Winner, Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary

In the waning years of the Vietnam War, the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings begin in Detroit, as former soldiers offer their testimony in witnessing war crimes over the course of their duty. This collaborative effort, produced by the Winterfilm Collective, was summarily censored upon release due to the brutal realities it exposed.

prod. Winterfilm Collective, 1972
Winner, Forum Award at Berlin International Film Festival