POV Award: Barbara Kopple – Harlan County, USA
Throughout her long and remarkable career, Barbara Kopple has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to documenting life as it happens, made evident by her obvious courage. From her historic debut documentary feature about a Kentucky coal miners’ strike, Harlan County, USA, to her most recent film on the controversy over the right to bear arms, 2011’s Gun Fight, Kopple has brought a boldly objective approach to the thorniest social issues of our time.
Kopple’s two Oscar wins for the documentary features Harlan County, USA and American Dream (USA 1990, SFIFF 1991), about the Hormel Foods meatpacker strike in Minnesota, are signature achievements. While some of her trademark techniques can be traced back to her early work in cinema vérité filmmaking with the Maysles Brothers, what distinguishes her career as a whole is its breadth of vision, subject matter and style. Kopple’s fascination with the American story has led her to tackle subjects as varied as Mike Tyson’s disgrace (1993’s Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson), Woody Allen’s musical career (1997’s Wild Man Blues), the clash between urban and suburban life (2005’s fiction feature Havoc), the Dixie Chicks’ run-in with the George W. Bush campaign (2006’s Shut Up & Sing) and the fate of a baseball icon (her contribution to ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, The House of Steinbrenner).
Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award each year honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work is outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking, crafting documentaries, short films, television, animated, experimental or multiplatform work.
Previous winners of the Persistence of Vision Award include multidisciplinary artist Matthew Barney (2011), animator Don Hertzfeldt (2010), documentarians Lourdes Portillo (2009), Errol Morris (2008) and Heddy Honigmann (2007), cinematic iconoclast Guy Maddin (2006), documentarians Adam Curtis (2005) and Jon Else (2004), experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill (2003), Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002), avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001), animator Faith Hubley (2000), documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998) and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997).
Tickets $20 for SFFS members, $25 for the general public. Box office opens March 6 for SFFS members online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street, Webster/Buchanan). Box office opens March 8 for the general public.
Kopple’s two Oscar wins for the documentary features Harlan County, USA and American Dream (USA 1990, SFIFF 1991), about the Hormel Foods meatpacker strike in Minnesota, are signature achievements. While some of her trademark techniques can be traced back to her early work in cinema vérité filmmaking with the Maysles Brothers, what distinguishes her career as a whole is its breadth of vision, subject matter and style. Kopple’s fascination with the American story has led her to tackle subjects as varied as Mike Tyson’s disgrace (1993’s Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson), Woody Allen’s musical career (1997’s Wild Man Blues), the clash between urban and suburban life (2005’s fiction feature Havoc), the Dixie Chicks’ run-in with the George W. Bush campaign (2006’s Shut Up & Sing) and the fate of a baseball icon (her contribution to ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, The House of Steinbrenner).
Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award each year honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work is outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking, crafting documentaries, short films, television, animated, experimental or multiplatform work.
Previous winners of the Persistence of Vision Award include multidisciplinary artist Matthew Barney (2011), animator Don Hertzfeldt (2010), documentarians Lourdes Portillo (2009), Errol Morris (2008) and Heddy Honigmann (2007), cinematic iconoclast Guy Maddin (2006), documentarians Adam Curtis (2005) and Jon Else (2004), experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill (2003), Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002), avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001), animator Faith Hubley (2000), documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998) and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997).
Tickets $20 for SFFS members, $25 for the general public. Box office opens March 6 for SFFS members online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street, Webster/Buchanan). Box office opens March 8 for the general public.
Sunday, April 22, 3:30 pm
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post Street
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post Street