Barbara Kopple originally went to Harlan County, Kentucky as a volunteer organizer for Miners for Democracy (or some such opposition to the union establishment). She had been an editor and saw the possibilities of raising the issues in a wider context, but always as an organizing instrument. Her distribution contract had specific provisions that the film would be >rent-free< in the Appalachian mining region and to other union-organizing related showings. The point to this comment is not to simply correct historical understanding but to elaborate on the point that I made earlier about collaborating with the people in the film. HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. was the product of two city kid film professionals -- Barbara Kopple and Hart Perry -- and the people who appeared in the film. Barbara and Hart lived with the people and took the same chances they did. Kopple tells of carrying a revolver or being accompanied by a guard when going to use the outside toilet. Whether any of this did any good for the miners is another question; I'm increasingly skeptical about the value of a film in changing anything unless accompanied by political organization. A film might help organize but people have to do the organizing on the ground -- door-to-door, person- to-person. No film that I know of has changed anything by itself. Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>