2026 Backyard Docs Film Festival: Closing Night — Harlan County, U.S.A.

The Backyard Docs Film Festival is excited to screen the Pittsburgh Premiere of a new restoration of one of the most impactful Appalachian documentaries of our lifetime, Harlan County, USA, as our closing film! The award-winning film from 1976 offers an unflinching look into a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. Today, 50 years later, this gorgeously restored film offers not just a look back in time but also serves as a powerful reminder of the strength of and need for organized labor and unions.

Harlan County, U.S.A.
This film documents the coal miners’ strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky, in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive womenfolk.
Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Sunday, Sept. 27th, 1:00 PM @ The Harris Theater

Backyard Docs Film Festival is our annual celebration of non-fiction cinema that explores our region’s Rust Belt and Appalachian identity.