This portrait of a coal-miners’ strike in rural Kentucky earned its young director the first of her two Academy Awards and, more important, provided national visibility for an ongoing labor action and its callous suppression by mine owners—events that had previously attracted scant media attention. Amidst the violent clashes between mine bosses, scab workers, and picketing miners and their families, Kopple and her courageous crew capture the extraordinary faith and perseverance of ordinary people fighting to retain their region, their health and safety, and their way of life.