Barbara Kopple: An American Cinematheque Tribute

ABOUT THE SERIES: 

The American Cinematheque is thrilled to salute legendary documentarian, Barbara Kopple, at our inaugural ‘This Is Not A Fiction’ festival. Her ingenious and trailblazing work has fundamentally shaped how people reflect on U.S. labor movements and continues to inspire generations of filmmakers and workers alike with her Academy Award-winning films HARLAN COUNTY, USA and AMERICAN DREAM.

Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winning and seven-time Emmy nominated filmmaker. A director and producer of documentaries, narrative films, and commercial spots, she most recently completed the documentary GUMBO COALITION, which follows visionary Civil Rights Leaders, Marc Morial and Janet Murguia. It takes the audience on an intimate journey into their lives, homes, and the family histories that motivate their mission to achieve a more just and equitable country at a dramatic crossroads in American history. It was the center-piece and premiered at the DOC NYC Film Festival, and internationally at IDFA. She has also directed and produced upwards of forty films throughout her career, including DESERT ONE, about the daring US Special Ops mission during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, featuring intimate interviews with President Carter, New Homeland, documenting a group of refugee children from Syria and Iraq who experience a summer camp in the Canadian wilderness, A MURDER IN MANSFIELD, THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS, MISS SHARON JONES!, HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION, RUNNING FROM CRAZY, WOODSTOCK: NOW AND THEN, WILD MAN BLUES, SHIT UP AND SING as well as her two Academy award winning films, HARLAN COUNTY, USA and AMERICAN DREAM, to name a few. In 1991, HARLAN COUNTY, USA was named to the National Film Registry by the Library 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 featured as part of the Sundance Collection at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

Kopple has worked with many industry heavy hitters and has put out films with HBO, PBS, VH1, A&E, STARZ, and OWN among others, as well as most of her features running theatrically. For her work, she has received some awards, among them are the Los Angeles Film Critics Award, the National Society of Film Critics Award, the New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award, and most recently the Critics Choice LifeTime Achievement D.A. Pennebaker Award. In 2010, Kopple received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from American University. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Director’s Guild of America, New York Women in Film and Television’s Honorary Board, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Woodstock Film Festival Advisory Board, AFI Advisory Board and actively participates in organizations that address social issues and support independent filmmaking. In 2023 she also received the Emmys lifetime achievement award. Kopple has also recently been inducted into the Alba Honorary Board.