About Barbara
Next Director »Described by Variety as “one of America’s greatest documentary directors,” Barbara Kopple’s decades-long career includes the Academy Award-winning films Harlan County, USA and American Dream, and the News & Documentary Emmy Award-nominated Desert One. Known for her intimate, cinema vérité style of filmmaking, Barbara’s work ranges from political explorations of war and the labor movement to thoughtful examinations of celebrity culture. Her seminal film Harlan County, USA, about an Appalachian miners’ strike, was recently named by Sight & Sound as one of the best documentaries of all time; it has also been preserved by the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Barbara founded an oversees production company Cabin Creek Films, based in New York City, which crafts documentary projects across film and television. In 2021 Barbara’s Oscar for best documentary feature for Harlan County, USA was included in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ “Academy Awards History” gallery amongst twenty feature Oscar milestones. She is currently in post-production on an untitled documentary feature about civil rights activists Janet Murguía and Marc Morial.
