Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County, USA” and “American Dream” both went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In addition to documentaries, she has also produced and directed narrative films, commercials, and television programs. Her most recent feature documentaries include “New Homeland,” “A Murder in Mansfield,” and “Gigi Gorgeous: This Is Everything.” Her entry in Netflix’s “ReMastered” series, “Tricky Dick and the Man in Black,” which she co-directed with Sara Dosa, is currently nominated for a 2019 News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Research. 

“Desert One” will premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

BK: In 1979, Jimmy Carter is president and about to face a re-election challenge next year when he finds himself facing a problem without any good solutions. Radical Islamists have suddenly taken power in Iran. A group of anti-American students there have taken over the U.S. embassy in Tehran by force, and are holding 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage.

What do you do if you’re President Carter? If you take aggressive military action in Iran, as many pundits advocate, the hostages will surely be killed. He meets with the families of those held and it all becomes really personal for him. He becomes almost obsessed — some say to his own detriment– with finding an ending to all this that sees no loss of life.

Publicly he seems to be pursuing diplomatic talks with Iran as his only answer to the problem, much to the criticism of his political opponents and a perception of weakness by some Americans, but in secret he green-lights the training for a very risky rescue mission.

That’s one part of the story, the perspective from the White House. Another big piece of the story is the men in the military who volunteer to take on this dangerous rescue. Like President Carter, these “Special Forces” warriors are in uncharted territory.

Up until this point in American history, there have been very few of what we now call Special Ops. In some ways they have to invent the strategies for this mission from scratch. It’s daunting. Hanging in the balance are the lives of the hostages, their own lives, and their President’s political future.

We also get the stories of the Iranians affected by this, of the hostages and of the families back home.

“Desert One” is really about what you do when there are no good answers. To me it’s much more heroic — and interesting — to see people who have “the guts to try,” as one of the men who undertook the mission famously put it. They need to find a solution. They want to be the good guys.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

BK: It felt very poignant for me to spend time with so many Special Ops warriors and to engage in what were very intimate, personal conversations about a story that matters very much to them. That’s not a side of military service people that we often see, the emotional side, and it was really touching and revelatory to me.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

BK: Just how gutsy and valiant these men were. They were on a mission of rescue meant to save lives and prevent war. One of their own choosing. And how selfless, too, President Carter was in undertaking it and how he approached the hostage situation, putting what was right first when some might have focused on the politics of it all, especially in an election year.

He told the military leaders when he commissioned the operation, “If this succeeds, it will be your success, and if it fails, it will be my failure.” He interviewed with me for this film and got very real. This is something that has really affected him.

I hope this movie will cause those who see it to give more thought to the kind of President and kind of man he was and is, and what kind of a model that might be for anyone in the White House going forward.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

BK: Well, it was about a secret mission, so right off the bat the question was — would there be anything to show? Fortunately, after some digging, the answer turned out to be “Yes!” We unearthed a lot of amazing footage and photos, and also personal items from the Special Operators — who sat down and told their stories in a really emotional and intimate way, some for the first time.

Also, we discovered this incredible audio that had never been released from the night of the mission, that really let us put audiences inside the moment, from both the mission side and the White House side. Then, we turned to animation to fill in what was missing. I think it’s the closest anyone has ever gotten to being there with the Special Ops.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

BK: History Channel announced a project in 2017 that they called “History 100.” They had decided to invest in a number of long-form documentaries that would pair pivotal under-explored stories from the last 100 years of American history with documentary filmmakers who had a passion for bringing them to life.

The “Desert One” story was one that was near and dear to History’s Executive Vice President & General Manager, Eli Lehrer, and when I learned about the story I also became very passionate to be the one to tell it. I talked with him and with Vice President of Programming, Zachary Behr, about how I would approach it, and we all became very excited to get started right away.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

BK: We recently lost one of the people who inspired me and helped me become a documentary filmmaker, my friend and inspiration, D.A. Pennebaker. The first time I saw his documentary “Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back,” I thought it was just about the coolest thing I had ever seen. That movie and his “Monterey Pop” were two that helped spark my passion to spend my life telling true stories that excite me.

And Pennebaker was one of the first filmmakers to ever really support me. I remember being a very young first-time director coming to his office for a screening of “Harlan County, USA.” He had offered to bring his friends in the industry there to see it, people I so respected and revered. You can imagine how petrified I was about what they would think.

I have never forgotten his incredible generosity in doing that, using his position to advocate for me, a young unknown filmmaker, and to amplify the hopes for my unknown film. That was Pennebaker. A few years later, he, Frederick Wiseman, and I were serving together on the first jury for Sundance.

I soon came to know the love of Pennebaker’s life and his greatest collaborator, the wonderful Chris Hegedus, an absolute joy to spend time with. Whenever I saw them, Pennebaker would embrace me and we would talk endlessly about film and life and everything in-between. He had such enthusiasm for all of it.

Over the rest of his life, he and Hegedus made a point of showing up to screenings of almost every film I ever made. This kind of graciousness and love and support has meant everything to me.

His and Hegedus’ films over the years, ones like “The War Room” all the way to one of his last, “Unlocking the Cage,” always served to remind me of just how close an audience can be brought to the subject of a film, how along-for-the-ride and visceral it could be, and how much energy and joy could come out of the screen and into our hearts.

I am sad that my friend is gone. I will miss him dearly. I feel such a sense of privilege for having felt this incredible person’s presence in my life for so long.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

BK: Most of the bad advice I’ve gotten in my life has been people telling me I can’t do something or shouldn’t do something. It’ll cost too much. It’s too dangerous. When someone tells you that you can’t do something and you feel deeply in your soul that you can, go for it. If you fail, you’ll learn from it. If you do well, the risk was well taken.

Some advice I heard early in my career, that I still live by when making documentaries, is to be true to your “characters.” Be true to the people you are filming. Allow them to take the lead of where they are going because they will always be much more interesting and moving than whatever you have in your mind. And be a really good listener.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

BK: My advice to directors of all kinds is not to be afraid of anything. That really is the best advice. Stick it out, know that you can do it, even if you aren’t sure you can, and people will help you and stand up with you. If you tell other people you need their help, people will want to see you succeed. Don’t take no for an answer, figure out a solution, and go by your instincts. Believe in yourself and, more than anything else, have fun!

Also, make the material your own. There’s no right or wrong way to direct. Embrace good ideas from others. And it’s also okay to change your mind. That’s courageous. That’s a good thing. If you find a better way to do something, it’s fine to change your mind. That’s part of life. And I think it’s very open and cool to say, “Hey, I thought this was a good way to do it, but this is better.”

Be supportive and help other filmmakers.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

BK: One friend of mine I would mention in particular, who paved the way for all of us, is Lucy Jarvis. We just celebrated her 102nd birthday. She’s bright as can be and still thinking of new films to make! She is a woman in our profession that I admire so much.

At a time when women weren’t thought of as producers or filmmakers, Lucy got in and did incredible things. She was the first woman to produce for prime time television. She always pushed, and pushed, and pushed to do what she wanted, the way she wanted.

She was the first one allowed into the Kremlin. NBC tried for two years to get in and couldn’t. Lucy did. She had to learn Russian and spend five months in the Soviet Union negotiating to do it, but she got her access to make [1963’s “The Kremlin”]. President Kennedy said he had told the Soviet Premier at the time that if the Soviets pulled the missiles out of Cuba, he would get Lucy Jarvis out of the Kremlin!

Thirty-five years later she was back at it, pressuring the State Department to let her into Cuba — at age 80! She was also among the first women in history to launch her own production company. She used her success to work on films about social issues she cared about and worked hard to make a difference.

That was how I first met her. When her daughter [Barbara Jarvis] brought me in to work on a documentary, against the Vietnam War [in 1971], called “Winter Soldier.” It was Lucy Jarvis who went out and raised the money for that film and got us the short ends to shoot on. I thought she was just an incredible person to know then, and she’s been in my life ever since.

W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

BK: The changes in the world today haven’t really changed anything for me in terms of how I live my life or conduct my work. I always believed you follow love and your heart and the rest will fall into place, and I still believe that is the path forward.

People sometimes ask me about the experience of women in the film industry. I don’t believe there is any one female experience. I’ve had my experience. Other women have had their experiences. It’s really different for everybody. That’s why it’s so important that we share our experiences with each other — that we compare notes. I am so proud and grateful to be part of that — to be part of the conversation today.

I never go to see a movie just because it’s made by a woman. But I will sometimes go to see a film because one of my friends has made it because I want to support them, and many of them do the same with my films. And the really cool thing is that, as my career has gone on, more and more of those friends whose films I’m going to see are women. We’ve become a tight community. We support each other, and we want each other to succeed.