The Drunk Projectionist's Todd Melby interviews Barbara Kopple, director of "Harlan County USA," her 1976 film about a Kentucky coal miner's strike Kopple talks about her nervy confrontation with a company-paid, strike-busting "gun thug" and a situation that turned violent on the picket line. “They kicked the Nagra [recorder]," Kopple says. "I had a long fish pole with a mic and I was just swinging it back at them.” Kopple also touches on many other subject during our interview, including the opening and closing shots of Harlan County USA, how she begged her parents to send more 16mm film so she could keep shooting, standing on picket lines even if she had no film in the camera and the importance of staying with a story, no matter how long it takes.