Gender Agency: Harlan County, USA, Shut Up & Sing!, and This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous
This chapter examines three documentaries, Harlan County USA (1976), Shut Up and Sing! (2006), and This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (2017), in which individuals consciously subvert traditional gender roles as they battle contexts of discrimination and forces of oppression in the United States and globally. The chapter explores how these documentaries trace coal miners’ wives, female musicians, and a youthful YouTube transgender personality, as they become extraordinary in their fights for living wages, civil rights, justice and equality. It reflects on potential connections between Kopple’s personal story as a woman documentary filmmaker, persevering in making films in a predominantly male-driven industry, and casting an empathetic eye on her subjects as they resiliently perform gender in unexpected and empowering ways.