Harlan County USA (BLU-RAY) Coming to Our Shelves August 2026
Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a 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. With a haunting soundtrack—featuring legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, David Morris, Sarah Ogan Gunning, and Florence Reece—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.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Barbara Kopple, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Kopple and editor Nancy Baker
- Making-of documentary featuring interviews with Kopple, crew members, and strike participants featured in the film
- Outtakes from the film
- Interview with bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens
- Interview with filmmaker John Sayles
- Panel discussion from the 2005 Sundance Film Festival featuring Kopple and critic Roger Ebert
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
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PLUS: Essays by film critic Michael Atkinson and musician and writer Jon Weisberger
Cover by Eric Skillman