academy award best documentary

It’s been slightly over 40 years since Hormel factory workers in Austin, Minnesota, went on a nearly year-long strike to protest slashed wages and benefits — and 35 years since Barbara Kopple’s revealing film about the strike, American Dream, won the Best Documentary Oscar in 1991. And what lingers most after watching the movie’s new 4K restoration is the feeling of how relevant so much of it still is decades later. Sure, fashions may have changed since the mid-’80s, and filmmaking equipment is more sophisticated these days but we still live in a world (or at least a country) in which the rich continue to get richer while the working class struggles to make ends meet. And when the latter dares to stand up for themselves, they’re met with disdain, condescension, and an unyielding devotion to capitalism. Let’s just say that the parade of White men in suits defending Hormel’s anti-worker policies and choices in 1985 doesn’t feel very far removed from the politicians and business leaders who are still prioritizing profit over people in 2026.