New Homeland
Canada, our friendly neighbors to the North, who welcomed 27,000 refugees (just 6,000 fewer than America) in 2017 alone, despite having a tenth of the U.S. population. Many of the refugees came from Syria and Iraq, and their journeys to safety were physically and mentally taxing. To tell the story of their experience, Academy Award®-winning director Barbara Kopple uses a unique and creative setting: summer camp. Located on a small island in the Canadian wilderness, Camp Pathfinder has given boys from Canada and the U.S. a place to belong for over a century. A few years ago, its director—saddened and disturbed by what he was seeing in the news—decided to give refugees the opportunity to attend the camp. Kopple’s film chronicles their stay, beautifully capturing the bonds of new friendship. But not all the boys are able to escape the mindset of war. Through the eyes of these youngsters, NEW HOMELAND documents the highs and lows of starting over.
Gun Fight
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting, Oscar winner Barbara Kopple takes an in depth look at the issue of gun rights and gun control. She interviews both gun and anti-gun advocates in an effort to shed some light on this not-quite black-and-white issue.
Harlan County U.S.A.
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Shut Up & Sing
Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment
Gumbo Coalition
Two Black and Latinx civil rights champions join forces to fight structural racism amid a troubling resurgence of white supremacy.
Desert One
The true story behind one the of most daring rescues in modern US history: a secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
American Dream
When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided and the very future of this typical mid American town is threatened.
Miss Sharon Jones!
Two-time Academy Award® winner Barbara Kopple shines a powerful, inspiring and entertaining spotlight on contemporary soul queen Sharon Jones. As she prepares to release her much-anticipated new album, Sharon comes face to-face with the greatest challenge of her life: a grave cancer diagnosis. Follow this tour de force over the course of an eventful and remarkable year as she struggles to hold her band The Dap-Kings together while battling her way back to the stage with the unstoppable determination of a true soul survivor
Havoc
A wealthy Los Angeles teen and her superficial friends wants to break out of suburbia and experience Southern California's "gangsta" lifestyle. But problems arise when the preppies get in over their heads and provoke the wrath of a violent Latino gang. Suddenly, their role-playing seems a little too real.
×