Barbara Kopple
Encyclopedia
Barbara Kopple is an American film director
, primarily known for her work in documentary film
.
, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.
Kopple has won two Academy Awards
, the first in 1976 for Harlan County, USA
, about a Kentucky
miners' strike
, and the second in 1991 for American Dream
, the story of the Hormel Foods strike in Austin, Minnesota
in 1985-86. She has directed episodes of the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street
and Oz
, winning a Directors Guild of America award for the former. Kopple also directed A Conversation With Gregory Peck
and Bearing Witness, as well as documentaries on Mike Tyson
and Woody Allen
. The latter film, Wild Man Blues
, focuses on his Dixieland jazz tour and on Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi Previn
.
Her first non-documentary feature film, Havoc
, starred Anne Hathaway
and Bijou Phillips
as wealthy suburbanites who venture into East Los Angeles
Latino gang territory, and was released straight to DVD
in 2005. Kopple has recently ventured into advertising work that includes documentary-style commercials for Target Stores.
She was also among the 19 filmmakers who worked together anonymously (under the rubric Winterfilm Collective
) to produce the film Winter Soldier
, an anti-war documentary about the Winter Soldier Investigation
. She has also done films for The Working Group, directing the 30-minute short documentary "Locked Out in America: Voices From Ravenswood" for the We Do the Work series. (We Do the Work aired in the mid-1990s on the PBS television series "P.O.V.
", and Kopple's segment was based on the book Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor.)
In the fall of 2006, she released a documentary, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
, about the Dixie Chicks
' George W. Bush
-related controversy.
Kopple is a niece of the American
playwright
Murray Burnett.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, primarily known for her work in documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
.
Biography
She grew up in Scarsdale, New YorkScarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.
Kopple has won two Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, the first in 1976 for Harlan County, USA
Harlan County, USA
Harlan County, USA is an Oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike" or "Bloody Harlan", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973...
, about a Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
miners' strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, and the second in 1991 for American Dream
American Dream (film)
American Dream is a cinéma vérité documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple and co-directed by Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, and Lawrence Silk....
, the story of the Hormel Foods strike in Austin, Minnesota
Austin, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,314 people, 9,897 households, and 6,076 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,168.2 people per square mile . There were 10,261 housing units at an average density of 954.3 per square mile...
in 1985-86. She has directed episodes of the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
, winning a Directors Guild of America award for the former. Kopple also directed A Conversation With Gregory Peck
A Conversation With Gregory Peck
A Conversation With Gregory Peck is a 1999 film directed by documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Kopple followed the actor as he embarked on a live speaking tour throughout the United States reflecting on his life and career...
and Bearing Witness, as well as documentaries on Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
. The latter film, Wild Man Blues
Wild Man Blues
Wild Man Blues is a 1998 documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple, about the musical avocation of actor/director/comic Woody Allen. The film takes its name from a jazz composition sometimes attributed to Jelly Roll Morton and sometimes to Louis Armstrong and recorded by both...
, focuses on his Dixieland jazz tour and on Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi Previn
Soon-Yi Previn
Soon-Yi Previn or Soon-Yi Farrow is an American actress and wife of film director Woody Allen.-Early life and adoption:...
.
Her first non-documentary feature film, Havoc
Havoc (film)
Havoc is a 2005 American film about the lives of wealthy Los Angeles, California teenagers whose exposure to hip hop culture inspires them to imitate the gangster lifestyle...
, starred Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
and Bijou Phillips
Bijou Phillips
Bijou Lilly Phillips is an American actress, model, and singer. Phillips began her career as a model but soon transitioned herself into acting and singing. When she was 13, she started as a model and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue....
as wealthy suburbanites who venture into East Los Angeles
East Los Angeles (region)
East Los Angeles is the portion of the City of Los Angeles that lies east of Downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River and the unincorporated areas of Lincoln Heights, west of the San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles and City Terrace, south of Cypress Park, and north of Vernon, California and...
Latino gang territory, and was released straight to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2005. Kopple has recently ventured into advertising work that includes documentary-style commercials for Target Stores.
She was also among the 19 filmmakers who worked together anonymously (under the rubric Winterfilm Collective
Winterfilm Collective
The Winterfilm Collective consisted of: Fred Aranow, Nancy Baker, Joe Bangert, Rhetta Barron, Robert Fiore, David Gillis, David Grubin, Jeff Holstein, Barbara Jarvis, Al Kaupas, Barbara Kopple, Mark Lenix, Michael Lesser, Nancy Miller, Lee Osborne, Lucy Massie Phenix, Roger Phenix, Benay...
) to produce the film Winter Soldier
Winter Soldier (film)
Winter Soldier is a 1972 documentary film chronicling the Winter Soldier Investigation which took place in Detroit, Michigan, from January 31 to February 2, 1971. The film documents the accounts of United States soldiers who returned from Vietnam, and participated in this war crimes hearing.The...
, an anti-war documentary about the Winter Soldier Investigation
Winter Soldier Investigation
The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War from January 31, 1971 – February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War...
. She has also done films for The Working Group, directing the 30-minute short documentary "Locked Out in America: Voices From Ravenswood" for the We Do the Work series. (We Do the Work aired in the mid-1990s on the PBS television series "P.O.V.
P.O.V.
POV is a Public Broadcasting Service Public television series which features independent nonfiction films. POV is a cinema term for "point of view"....
", and Kopple's segment was based on the book Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor.)
In the fall of 2006, she released a documentary, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing is a 2006 documentary film produced and directed by Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck ....
, about the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
' George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
-related controversy.
Kopple is a niece of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Murray Burnett.
Filmography
- 1972: Winter SoldierWinter Soldier (film)Winter Soldier is a 1972 documentary film chronicling the Winter Soldier Investigation which took place in Detroit, Michigan, from January 31 to February 2, 1971. The film documents the accounts of United States soldiers who returned from Vietnam, and participated in this war crimes hearing.The...
- 1976: Harlan County, USAHarlan County, USAHarlan County, USA is an Oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the "Brookside Strike" or "Bloody Harlan", an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973...
- 1981: Keeping on
- 1990: American DreamAmerican Dream (film)American Dream is a cinéma vérité documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple and co-directed by Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, and Lawrence Silk....
- 1992: Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy
- 1993: Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson
- 1994: Century of Women: Sexuality and Social Justice
- 1994: Century of Women: Work and Family
- 1997: Homicide: Life on the Street - The Documentary
- 1997: Wild Man Blues
- 1998: Homicide: Life on the Street - Pit Bull Sessions
- 1999: A Conversation with Gregory Peck
- 1999: Homicide: Life on the Street - Self Defense
- 2000: My Generation
- 2002: American Standoff
- 2002: The Hamptons
- 2004: Bearing Witness
- 2004: Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight
- 2004: WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception
- 2005: HavocHavoc (film)Havoc is a 2005 American film about the lives of wealthy Los Angeles, California teenagers whose exposure to hip hop culture inspires them to imitate the gangster lifestyle...
- 2006: Shut Up & Sing
- 2010: 30 for 3030 for 3030 for 30 is the umbrella title for a series of documentaries airing on ESPN and its sister networks. The series, which premiered in October 2009 and concluded in December 2010, chronicles 30 stories from the "ESPN era," each of which detail the issues, trends, people, teams, or events that...
: The House of Steinbrenner - 2011: Gunfight