While looking up the movie that we recently watched in class named Harlan county USA, i learned some interesting facts about the anti-union sides view of Barbara Koppel being there. Apparently after filming had concluded a plot to assassinate Barbara was uncovered. Apparently during filming everyone in the film crew had to carry guns because of the direct threat of hired thugs. This made me wonder if Duke power had been directly behind the threats to silence Koppel and her crew and if they hired someone to murder her. We saw in the movie how a former union president had been murdered as well as video evidence of a mine operator firing shots at the picket line in a drive by. We also heard of corruption surrounding the murder of a miner and saw the county courts fail to seek justice.With all these people willing to do outrageous things to stop a peaceful strike, i wonder what their motive is and if they were hired by Duke power to do so. I can’t think of any other reason why a random individual would target a filmmaker and a union president other than to intimidate the rest of them. I really wish the documentary had been more investigative but it’s understandable why it wasn’t as the murder plot wasn’t uncovered until after the movie had finished filming and going into filming they probably weren’t aware of the level of corruption in the county.
I was very interested in the research you did outside of class. I think the film reached out to you and made you want to know more about it. I did as well so reading your response had me very shocked. When I read the part About how everyone in the film had to carry guns. It amazed me but I wasn’t too surprised because as we watched the film you can see or you can picture in what situations the film maker may have gotten into. I also agree that a lot of people had bad intentions. The reason why was because they depended on the miners in order to get wealthy and have what they wanted and when it comes to money people will even kill another human being. For instance the miners were not given the acomedations they deserved. They didn’t get health benefits and when they were ready to retire they were not needed and were not rewarded for their years of labor. That is why these men and women were so outraged and wanted a change. They decided to do this at first with peace and non violence but that did not work and at the end very one was getting violent.