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AMERICAN DREAM is a feature documentary film, which tells the story of meatpackers’ years-long strike in Austin, Minnesota. Barbara Kopple and her crew spent four years filming the drama within the Austin community and the ensuing debates among labor organizations across the country. Brothers and neighbors must eventually make the painful and emotional decision whether the strike or their families take precedent as members of Austin’s P-9 Union consider crossing the picket line. The film is a human look at the brutal consequences of corporate greed and Reaganomics. It is an intimate portrait of working families in America whose efforts to make a living are challenged time and again, and it is a tribute to the noble spirit of labor unions all over the nation.

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