American Dream

Director

Barbara Kopple

Producers

Arthur Cohn

Barbara Kopple

Cinematographers

Kevin Keating

Mark Petersson

Peter Gilbert

Editors

Cathy Caplan

Lawrence Silk

Thomas Haneke

Music

Al Nahmias

Donald Klocek

Website

Contact

<p>Cabin Creek Films
270 Lafayette St., Suite 710
New York, NY 10012
(212) 343 2585
[email protected]</p>

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1 2 3 4

1990

100 min

Color

USA, 1990, Colour, 100 min

Chronicles the six-month strike at Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, in 1985-86. The local union, P-9 of the Food and Commercial Workers, overwhelmingly rejects a contract offer with a $2/hour wage cut. They strike and hire a New York consultant to manage a national media campaign against Hormel. Despite support from P-9’s rank and file, FCWU’s international disagrees with the strategy. In addition to union-company tension, there’s union-union in-fighting. Hormel holds firm; scabs, replacement workers, brothers on opposite sides, a union coup d’état, and a new contract materialize. The film asks, was it worth it, or was the strike a long-term disaster for organized labour?

Directors' Biography

<p>Barbara Kopple (born July 30, 1946) is an American film director known primarily for her documentary work. She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive, and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.</p>

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