TIFF REVIEW: BY KURT MORRISON

SEPTEMBER 21, 2026

2 OUT OF 5 STARS

It has been 50 years since acclaimed documentarian and Oscar award winning director Barbara Kopple released her 1976 documentary Harlan County here at the Toronto International Film Festival. So many things have changed since then - our beloved city of Toronto, the festival which has grown in popularity immensely, Barbara's resume of course and many more. But the one thing that remains, and has become the central theme of her documentary work is corporate greed.

Kopple brings Union Town to TIFF, which highlights the struggle of three different labor groups & its workers - UPS (United Postal Service), Deliveristas (DoorDash and GrubHub) and Amazon - as each group faces struggles pertaining to wage, working conditions, liabilities and injuries. It is a hard reminder of the wage gap and destruction of workers rights that most suffer with when working for these kinds of giant, tyrannical companies. 

Set against the backdrop of the boroughs of New York City, Kopple spends an adequate amount of time with each of the groups, with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (more commonly known simply as The Teamsters) being front and centre from the majority of the documentary, as they represent UPS workers and attempt to make their way into the workforce of Amazon warehouse workers and drivers. 

The movie feels like one giant real-life corporate version of David vs Goliath, as each chapter of the doc presents a different scenario, explaining that what the workers are asking for in regards to compensation and safety seem.... well, obvious and fair.

Something like air-conditioning or the installation of fans in delivery trucks shouldn't seem like a big deal..... right? And that's where the outrage as a viewer comes from, is understanding that these corportations genuinely do not give a shit about their employees. Said exploration has been the bond in the storytelling playbook in Kopple's other two Academy Award winning documentaries, the aforementioned Harlan County from 1976 and the more recent American Dream from 1990.

Comparatively, I do feel that both Harlan County and American Dream are more successful in their storytelling simply because of their closeness and specificity.  Union Town never creates a solid personal connection with any party or persons specifically throughout each of the three avenues it chooses to explore. I cannot tell you one persons name from the documentary and in turn, I think that's its fallacy - because what should feel like one movement ends up feeling like three unfinished ones that lack a personal connection. I am all for the fight each of these groups have ahead of them, striking against their corporate overlords who are both vile and ruthless, but not getting to know these people well takes away from the affinity that Kopple's other films held.

It is hard not to admire the patience behind this film and the work that went into it. But admiration isn't quite the same as being moved though, and the film stops short of the second one. I wanted to feel more from Union Town, and wonder what the documentary could have looked like if they chose to just focus on one or two of the groups instead of three. It's not that Union Town is a bad film, it just lacks intimacy.