You Have to Be There: Barbara Kopple Looks Back on American Dream

Set in Austin, Minnesota, a company town where nearly every resident has a connection to food-processing giant Hormel Foods, Barbara Kopples American Dream (1990) embeds with unionized Hormel meatpackers as they respond to a 23 percent hourly wage cut in a time of unprecedented corporate profits. Kopple and her collaborators embedded with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local P-9 for a year. The film spans the Austin locals initial PR push, their tactical disagreements with the UFCW...