It is one of the 10 best documentaries of all time: 48 years after its release, this absolute masterpiece is still unseen in France.

Although it is naturally different in form from fictional works, the emotional field opened up by documentary film can be absolutely devastatingly powerful. Because it deals with things that are sometimes intimate, with questions that deeply surprise and ask us, about our relationship with the world, others and living beings.

The brutal and bloody history of the American miners’ struggle for their rights has often been told in American fiction and sometimes, fortunately, gives us very great films and even masterpieces. For example, on the treacherous command of Martin Ritt, in which Sean Connery will find one of the best roles of his career.

or the Battle of Matewan, the terrible prelude to the general miners’ revolt in the Virginia region in 1921; A year in which an army of 10,000 of them faced 3,000 lawyers, raiders and soldiers. An event that was the largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest armed uprising since the Civil War.

“They treat us like dogs!”

As for the documentaries, there was also widespread talk about the terrible living conditions of minors. Best known is the work of a two-time Oscar-winning female director who was trainedDirect Film School : Barbara Copley.

At just 28, he signed on to one of the greatest documentaries of the 20th century: Harlan County, USA, released in 1976, which won an Oscar the following year; Among the 50 best documentaries of all time by Sight & Sound in 2019.

For more than a year, it followed 180 coal miners in Harlan, Kentucky, who went on a brutal strike in 1972-1973 to fight for their rights against Duke Power.

Here’s the trailer…

Copple and his team spent years with the families featured in the film, documenting the struggles they face for working conditions, decent wages and, ultimately, the simple right to dignity: some families lived in slums, without even running water…

Nothing is spared between the testimonies of miners suffering from silicosis caused by coal dust settling in their lungs, women entering the fray, strike breakers and brutal police raids, as well as the exchange of gunfire. This is a very painful and proud page in the history of the struggle of the American miners, which is being written before our eyes.

Both echo and terrible War of Harlan Countywhich took place in the same region, from 1931 to 1939, that had already pitted coal industry miners against their operators and local authorities, among a series of clashes, executions and bomb attacks.

Rocked by a fantastic soundtrack featuring legendary country and bluegrass singers Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning and Florence Reese, Harlan County, USA is an exceptional and moving documentary, committed and visceral punchy cinema.

If the work is mainly part of the transatlantic cinematic legacy, having been included in the prestigious catalog of the Library of Congress in 1990, we are sadly surprised that it is not such a masterpiece of the genre. I even had the honor of releasing it on physical media with us, even on DVD…