Next up for FROM THE VAULT: WOMEN’S ADVOCACY ON FILM is Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA, an unflinching document that chronicles a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. The film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

We’re thrilled to have Barbara Kopple in attendance!

When a few score coal miners and their wives stood up against the collected might of the Eastover Coal Company in southeastern Kentucky, documentarian Barbara Kopple was on the ground and right in the thick of the pickets, recording the Brookside Strike in this rough-and-ready boots-on-the-ground classic which lets working people tell their own story, and asks in no uncertain terms: Which side are you on? – Metrograph

Named in 2014 Sight & Sound’s Greatest Documentaries of All Time list.

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 1976

Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Special Award 1977, Barbara Kopple.

“The film retains all of its power, in the story of a miners’ strike in Kentucky where the company employed armed goons to escort scabs into the mines, and the most effective picketers were the miners’ wives — articulate, indomitable, courageous.” — Roger Ebert

Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker. A director and producer of narrative films and documentaries, her two most recent projects are the documentaries Miss Sharon Jones! which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015, was the opening night film of DOC NYC and tracks the talented and gregarious soul singer of the Grammy-nominated R&B band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings during the most challenging year of her life and Shelter which tells a story of vets saving vets, delving into the psychological trauma created by military service, the effects that remain long after active duty, and the difficult road back to a normal life for these women and men.

Barbara produced and directed Harlan County USA and American Dream, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 1991, Harlan County USA was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress and designated an American Film Classic. Harlan County USA was restored and preserved by the Women’s Preservation Fund and the Academy Film Archive, and was featured as part of the Sundance Collection at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. The Criterion Collection released a DVD of Harlan County USA in 2006.

Susan Lazarus, (Producer, Post-production Supervisor) works in both feature film and documentary, with independent filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Maggie Greenwald, Spike Lee, and Mira Nair. Docs include HBO’s The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, as well as Naqoyqatsi, Love, Marilyn, Image Before My Eyes, The War at Home, and Apache 8. Recently she was Co-Producer on Maggie Greenwald’s “Sophie and the Rising Sun” and Post-Production Supervisor on the Jim Jarmusch film, “Paterson”, currently supervising post on Spike Lee’s “Black Klansman”. She is a longtime member and previously Co-Chairwoman of the NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund, and served on the Board of NYWIFT as VP of Programming.

Pamela Cruz, archives strategist and advocate, was recently chief strategist for the National Historic Preservation Center at Girl Scouts of the USA. She has extensive global experience in assessment, organization, preservation, and management of asset collections, creating systems for tracking and storage. Prior to her work with the Girl Scouts, Pamela was vice president of archival services for Miramax Films and antiques manager at Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation. During her years at Miramax, she was responsible for the inception of the Miramax Archives Department, creating archive databases, and handling taxonomy and systems for Miramax and Dimension Films as well as the personal archives of the co-chairmen of the company. She worked with an array of film asset collections in Italy, France, Mexico, and Romania, and the U.S., as well as on various exhibits for museums and other venues. During her tenure at Polo, she was instrumental in bringing the collection digital and implementing tracking and loan systems, and she provided architects and designers with company assets for projects and special events.

Pamela completed three years of service on the Board of Directors of Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (A.R.T.) as vice president responsible for monthly programming and later as president. She was appointed the A.R.T. representative to the Regional Archival Associations Consortium for Society of American Archivists for 2016 – 2018. Pamela is committed to archival education and outreach and was a participant in the inaugural K-12 Archives Education Institute at New York Archives Week, bringing Girl Scout archive assets to New York educators for use in the classroom. Pamela is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, where she is on the Women’s Film Preservation Fund committee. She was recently a member of the board of directors for IndieCollect, whose mission is to preserve and make accessible independent American films. In March, 2017 Ms. Cruz was appointed to the 15-member NYC Archives, Research and Reference Advisory Board by Mayor de Blasio; she is honored to serve the City of New York in this capacity and to support Pauline Toole, Commissioner, NYC Department of Records and Information Services.