My project uses the making of this documentary to analyze the intersection of three postwar histories: the reform movements sweeping through organized labor’s big unions; the surge of young white middle-class activists into the union movement after calls for black separatism closed off much white civil rights activism; and the explosion of documentary filmmaking in the sixties and seventies that sent many would-be filmmakers into the rural U.S. South. I use the successful alliance between local strikers, MFD, and Kopple to examine the relationship of documentary expression, conceived broadly as not just film but audio recordings, non-fiction prose, interest in “folk” life, and live musical performances—and social movement activism in the postwar United States.
In particular, Kopple’s film exemplifies a once vibrant but now almost forgotten attempt in the 1960s and 1970s to use documentary expression in imitation of Depression-era aesthetic and political practices. My project resurrects this documentary movement—including direct cinema-influenced filmmaking, audio field recordings, and photography—and the history of young middle-class Americans’ broad interest in rural working-class life.