Barbara Kopple makes absorbing documentaries by staying close to people and letting them carry the story. We rate her patience and sense of drama; commissioned celebrity portraits are where that sympathetic approach needs the closest scrutiny.
Fi1m perspective
Barbara Kopple lets people carry a scene, with little voice-over to explain what we should think of them. She stays long enough to see them change, and makes those changes part of the story. Her early work with the Maysles brothers helps explain that preference for watching rather than narrating. The practical detail worth noticing is that she often records sound herself, working with crews of two to five. That is one way to get close without making the filming itself the main event.
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976), about a Kentucky coal miners’ strike, established her reputation for that closeness. American Dream (1990) returned to labour conflict through the Hormel strike and divisions within the union. The move towards music and celebrity portraits put her patience to a different use. Wild Man Blues (1997) demonstrates the access she can earn, while also raising the concern that a sympathetic portrait can become a service to its subject.
Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), for which she directed episodes, offers a different setting for her interest in people. We were absorbed by its detectives because the performances made them as compelling as the cases, with Andre Braugher the chief attraction. The restless editing sometimes distracted us from acting we wanted to watch without interruption, but this remains richly rewarding, demanding television. That praise belongs to the programme: an episode-directing credit alone cannot tell us which of its strengths, or irritating cuts, are Kopple’s.
There are further fiction credits in Oz (1997) and Havoc (2005), her first theatrical narrative feature, but we rate her most highly as a documentary-maker. The reservation is about how thoroughly she questions the people who trust her, especially when the subject is a celebrity. Warmth can make a portrait too accommodating. Start with Harlan County, U.S.A. before following her towards the famous.
Biography
Barbara Kopple (born 30 July 1946) is an American film director known primarily for her documentary work. She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, studied at Northeastern University, and began her career working with the Maysles brothers on films including Gimme Shelter (1970).
Kopple directed the Academy Award-winning documentaries Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976), about a coal miners' strike in Kentucky, and American Dream (1990), about a strike at a Hormel meatpacking plant. She was the first woman to win two Oscars for Best Documentary Feature. Other documentaries include Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing (2006) and Miss Sharon Jones! (2015).
She has also directed episodes of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and Oz (1997), winning a Directors Guild of America award for the former.
