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Documentarian Kopple: Creating 'a sense of trust'

Producer of 'American Standoff' at Sundance

Barbara Kopple

By Anne Hubbell
Special to CNN

PARK CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Barbara Kopple is widely considered one of the finest living documentary filmmakers.

She received Academy Awards for directing "Harlan County, USA" (1976), about the effects of a labor strike on 180 coal-mining families, and "American Dream" (1990), about a Hormel plant strike that changed the labor movement forever.

Kopple returns to the Sundance Film Festival as the producer of "American Standoff," a new documentary that explores the dynamics of a labor union through the unfolding of the Teamsters Union strike against Overnite Transportation, the largest nonunion trucking company in the United States.

In recent years she has directed fiction work, particularly on television. Her credits include, "A Century of Women" (a 1994 miniseries), "Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson" (1993), and episodes of "Homicide" and "Oz." She also gained note for being one of the few people to direct a film starring Woody Allen, the documentary "Wild Man Blues" (1997).

CNN talked to Kopple about her subject matter, the life of a documentarian, and her move to the producer's chair.

CNN: You've covered nearly 30 years of American labor issues. What keeps you coming back to that subject?

KOPPLE: I like to see how people and how labor has changed. I find that sometimes you really don't get to hear what people are thinking and feeling. And, usually people are in a crisis because of the struggle with different elements in their lives and I want their voices to be heard.

EXTRA INFORMATION In-depth special: Sundance 2002    GALLERY Who's showing at Sundance    RESOURCES • InStyle.com: Highlights from Sundance  • EW.com: The buzz at Sundance

CNN: How has your experience on the productions changed in terms of access to your subjects and your personal safety?

KOPPLE: Well, in "Harlan County," there was no such thing as safety. We were shot at. I was told if they ever caught me at night they would kill me. People carried guns. ... I was pushed over and kicked. Things like that.

I think now safety is much easier because everybody is filming everybody. The companies have cameras, the workers have cameras, the police have cameras. So I think safety has changed, but nobody knows what could happen to you late at night when you are alone in your room.

And also the rules are much more stringent now. You can't do the things that you could do in the late '70s. We've become a society [in which] everything is taken care of in court. All the laws and regulations make it very hard.

CNN: As a producer, how involved are you in the creative process? How closely did you work with director Kristi Jacobson?

KOPPLE: Well, I shot a lot of this film, too. Nothing happens without my approval.

I was very involved. I would get calls from Kristi all the time saying, you know, "This is happening. Nothing is going on. What should I do?" I would say, "That's good. That's a movie moment."

For example, John Murphy [a Teamsters organizer] didn't know whether they were going to strike or not. And he was sitting with his head in his hands. Kristy would call and say, "Nothing is happening." And I would say, "Lots is happening! Stick to it. Stay there. Go for it." And she did.

CNN: You followed Woody Allen in "Wild Man Blues," Mike Tyson in "Fallen Champ," and Gregory Peck in "A Conversation with Gregory Peck." Is there a difference between documenting celebrities and everyday folk?

KOPPLE: I think that no matter who you work with, there has to be a sense of intimacy and a sense of trust. And each situation is different. Woody Allen, for example, just let me do whatever I wanted to. He worked with me. When he was on, I was on. When he was off, I was off.

With Gregory Peck, this was the first time he had ever allowed anybody to film his personal life. So it was about him letting go and us always struggling to keep doing it. He would take me in his arms and hug me and call me his "torturer," and then laugh. Also, his daughter was a big part of the film, which made it [alternately] harder and easier.

Mike Tyson was hard because there were a lot of people who didn't want to be filmed, like Don King. So that made it little bit harder, but you get through all those hurdles.

"American Standoff," produced by Kopple, looks into the inner workings of the Teamsters.

In "American Standoff," [Teamster head Jimmy] Hoffa [Jr.] was very nervous about being filmed. He had been under a microscope all of his life, ever since his father went missing. He didn't trust media. He was just inaugurated as president [of the Teamsters Union] as we started filming. He was less inclined to really let us into his world. But over time he allowed us to do as much as we were able to.

CNN: How has the multitude of cable networks featuring nonfiction programming helped or hurt the documentary community?

KOPPLE: Oh, I think its exquisite. It has totally helped allow the public to really be able to see how entertaining and wonderful these films are. Anytime somebody shows a nonfiction film I think it helps the craft. It helps the American public to learn and see and feel something that they didn't know before.

CNN: Do you think reality TV is changing the way documentaries are made, or what audiences are willing to watch?

KOPPLE: I think there is room for everything. I think reality TV is a good thing because people are interested in what other people are doing. ... It's up to the general public to decide what they like. That could then change into something else, like with reality TV looking at people over a long period of time or something. We are constantly changing, and change is good.