2010 Filmmaker In Residence

Barbara Kopple

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 recently 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.

Barbara produced and directed Shut Up and Sing, which tells the story of the Dixie Chicks and their personal and creative response to the political fallout they faced after making comments critical of President Bush on the eve of the Iraq War; A Conversation with Gregory Peck, a film portrait of the career and family life of the actor; The Hamptons, a four-hour mini-series for ABC; My Generation, which examines the Woodstock legacy and Generation X; and Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Directing.  She directed the feature nonfiction film Wild Man Blues, about the European tour of Woody Allen and his New Orleans-style jazz band, for which she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary.  Barbara also produced the HBO documentary American Standoff, which chronicled an 18-month strike of the Teamsters Union against Overnite Transportation, and the A&E documentary Bearing Witness about female war correspondents working in Iraq.  Barbara was a member of the Winter Soldier Collective, which created the film Winter Soldier.