HOME continues its commitment to ‘Celebrating Women in Global Cinema’ by hosting a short season entitled ‘In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers’, featuring six films throughout January and I was lucky enough to catch ‘American Dream’ (Kopple, B. 1990).
Filmed in the mid 1980s, American Dream tells the story of a local meatpacking workforce in Austin, Minnesota, that are faced with a renewed contract offer, which features significantly lower wages. The workforce turn to their local union, who in turn call in a consultant to run a campaign, much to the chagrin of union’s national leadership. Director Kopple compiles fly-on-the-wall footage from all sides over a two-year period in an intimate, yet globally relevant film about class and the trade union movement in Reagan’s America.
As the film begins it is quickly apparent that Kopple’s footage has not been digitally restored, or was even high production value in the 1980s, but far from being a criticism, this gently-grained, autumnal toned footage of America’s Midwest is wonderfully tactile and immediately envelops the viewer in this community and era. Kopple continues this immersive experience by her excellent footage, with her camera right at the heart of meetings, rallies and picket lines, but it is through the access she gained and the trust that she must have elicited from her participants that is her real masterstroke. American Dream views the strike action and its internal rifts from all sides, with equal weighting and compassion, so the viewer is given no easy character archetypes to lean on. There is of course an omnipotent villain in the form of the corporation that runs the meat-packing factory, which is often just depicted by its signage adorning the dormant factory walls like the eye of Sauron. But as the growing internal disputes occur within the workforce, the union and indeed within families, nobody is depicted as right or wrong. One scene features the evangelical campaign consultant facing a dissenting voice who struggles to make himself clear as hundreds of his co-workers try to shout him down. After the man falteringly articulates his concern that the campaign has made no measurable steps towards resolving the dispute, the consultant Ray Rogers retorts angrily, with his finger prodding pointedly towards the non-believer. Initially the scene looks like it is rather insensitive to the inarticulate nay-sayer, but as Rogers shuts him down there is the first sign of what will become increasingly obvious; that there is stubbornness, and perhaps arrogance at the heart of the campaign, which increasingly proves the dissenter right.
This is a documentary in which its own subject matter is the spoiler, because UK history tells us all we need to know about the success of union action under conservative/capitalist governments, unless of course you can dance. So Kopple’s film has an air of inevitability by the half way mark, as the activist campaign starts to run out of ideas, negotiations cease and the national union leaders refuse to back the local majority. I noted that the leader of the local union increasingly resembled Ferris Bueller’s paranoid headteacher, in both appearance and the wide-eyed horror of someone facing defeat, but refusing to give up the fight. Despite all this, it never once loosens its grip on the audience, nor does it get dragged into contract legalese or union jargon that alienates, instead remaining compelling throughout.
American Dream is a film with humanity and compassion, directed with an even-handed, intelligent view of a complex situation without ever resorting to cold distantiation. It draws you into a community on the brink of collapse, which is cruelly left to tear itself apart as desperation and despair take hold and humanises everyone it features. As a damning indictment of trickle-down economics, capitalism and the class system, it feels just as urgent today as it did when first released.
HOME’s ‘In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers’ season continues throughout January.
Reviewer - Ben Hassouna-Smith
on - 16/1/20
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