"My overall goal, is to let people speak and let them be heard, because what they are saying is really important, as important or more important than anything President Bush has to say. It's to film stories about people that you wouldn't ordinarily get to see. To think that these people's stories are going to be shown, that other people will hear them, as a film maker that gives me a tremendous amount of strength to carry on."--Barbara Kopple (quoted in NEW YORK TIMES, March 24, 1992)
"I knew there was a poignant story out there about what was happening in Middle America to people who believed in the American dream, the American work ethic, the whole notion of upward mobility, and who were watching those beliefs become unraveled. We had no idea of the kind of, not physical brutality, but mental brutality people would endure to try to keep decent jobs with decent pay, the kinds of things they learned to believe in all their lives."--Barbara Kopple discussing "American Dream" (quoted in NEW YORK TIMES, March 24, 1992)
Kopple also produced "Hurricane Irene", a high-definition videotape of an international peace festival filmed in Japan and featuring live performances by Jackson Browne and Peter Gabriel. She also produced and directed "Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues" (c. 1989), a video documentary about the 25th anniversary activities held in commemoration of the civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman slain in Mississippi in 1964.
"Harlan County, USA" was named by Congress to the National Film Registry designating it an American classic (1990)
