Time is ripe for a teevee airing of "Harlan County, USA" - But I wouldn't count on it.

If you get your info from the MSM, you'll never learn that Massey is non-union.

Why's that?





The anti-union coal mines in this country are still killing their miners in the name of profits.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County,_USA

http://www.ovguide.com/movies_tv/matewan.htm

Plot: Matewan (1987)

Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide less

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Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) (CC) TV14 May 4 6:35AM, May 4 12:30PM - 105 mins

Kentucky coal miners face brutal opposition in 1973 strike.

http://www.ifc.com/movies/21576/Harlan-County-USA

Harlan County, USA
Tuesday, May. 4 at 6:35 AM EDT
Tuesday, May. 4 at 12:30 PM EDT



1976 | 103 min. | Director: Barbara Kopple | TV-14-L
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.

My husband and I watched it a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it.

and don't get IFC - it is available on the main public torrent sites. I have a feeling once you see it, you will want to buy some of the Criterion edition to give to people. Powerful film.

I end up having to watch it every time I see that it's on.