Barbara Kopple brings workers’ lives to Ji.hlava in Union Town
Barbara Kopple’s Union Town reaches the Ji.hlava documentary festival after Venice and Toronto, completing her trilogy about American labor. The film follows UPS and Amazon employees and app-based couriers. Alongside organizing and disputes within unions, it includes workers’ families and victories, extending a filmmaking project that began with Kentucky’s striking miners half a century ago.
Arts··Evening
A labor trilogy reaches Ji.hlava
Barbara Kopple’s Union Town is heading to the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival after screenings in Venice and Toronto. The American director follows UPS delivery drivers, Amazon warehouse employees and couriers taking jobs through applications. Their efforts to organize at work complete an informal trilogy about labor rights that spans half a century of her filmmaking.[1], [2]
The earlier films approached very different strikes. Harlan County U.S.A., released in 1976, followed miners in Kentucky. American Dream, released in 1990, examined the defeated 1985–1986 strike at a Minnesota meatpacking plant. Both won Academy Awards; Kopple shared the American Dream award with Arthur Cohn. She says years spent with workers and their families shaped her return to the subject.[1], [2]
Organizing begins with workers and families
A central episode follows the threatened Teamsters strike during UPS contract negotiations in 2023. Teamsters is the union representing the workers in those talks. New York employee Audrey presses its leadership for more ambitious demands as preparations for a possible strike proceed. Matěj Schneider, writing in the documentary journal DOK.REVUE, describes the opposition she encounters inside the union. He praises Kopple’s attention to ordinary members rather than only their leaders.[2]
Longtime UPS worker and organizer Antonio Tony Rosario appears with his sons. He teaches them solidarity by demonstrating how a single twig breaks easily while a bundle resists. Both Kopple’s account of the scene and Schneider’s discussion place the family alongside the workplace campaign. The documentary also follows the difficulties facing cleaners and delivery workers scattered across separate jobs.[1], [2]
Victories enter the film alongside disputes
Kopple includes victories as well as organizing battles. In 2025, DoorDash agreed to pay 17 million dollars to settle claims that customer tips had subsidized workers’ wages in New York. She also recalls Amazon employees receiving applause at the Venice screening. Cabin Creek Films made the documentary, and Autlook Filmsales handles international sales. Union Town gives sustained attention to people Kopple says felt disposable after the pandemic.[1]
