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Park City Legacy

American Dream

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United States199098 minEnglish
American Dream

When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are forced to take a substantial pay cut, the local union takes a stand for its members. Their strike tests the fragile promise of the American ideal, revealing the cost of survival when the dream no longer feels shared.

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When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are forced to take a substantial pay cut, the local union takes a stand for its members. Their strike tests the fragile promise of the American ideal, revealing the cost of survival when the dream no longer feels shared.

Over the course of six years, director Barbara Kopple documented the plight of 1,500 middle-class workers who believed in the idea that hard work and dedication would result in an increased standard of living. Sudden wage reductions provoked the union to strike, but corporate higher-ups were already prepared to stifle their dissension at any cost. American Dream is not a black-and-white story of injustices thrust upon the American worker a strategic battle emerges within the union itself, creating a no-win situation that pits brother against brother and friend against friend. In documenting their struggle, Kopple’s observational style is patient, intimate, and unobtrusive. Viewed through a contemporary lens, it serves as a modern manual for understanding the stakes of labor a reminder that the American Dream still exists on contested ground. — AM

Supervised and approved by director Barbara Kopple, this 4K digital restoration was undertaken by Janus Films and the Criterion Collection from a scan of the 16 mm internegative. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm DME magnetic track.

Available in person only.

*In attendance will be Barbara Kopple.

Park City LegacyAll FeaturesNonfictionClosed CaptionU.S. Only- less

Credits

  • Director(s)

    Barbara Kopple

  • Producers

    Arthur Cohn

    Barbara Kopple

  • Coordinating Producers

    Esther Cassidy

    Peter Miller

  • Editors

    Cathy Caplan

    Tom Haneke

    Lawrence Silk

  • Associate Editor

    Robert McFalls

  • Cinematographers

    Peter Gilbert

    Kevin Keating

    Hart Perry

    Mark Petersson

    Mathieu Roberts

  • Music

    Michael Small

  • Participants

    Lewie Anderson

    R.J. Bergstrom

    Ron Bergstrom

    Wayne Goodnature

    Jim Guyette

    Jesse Jackson

    Meet the Artist

    Panelist Name

    Barbara Kopple

      Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award–winning and 10-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in 2023. Throughout her career, she has directed and produced upward of 50 films, including Harlan County, USA and American Dream.

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