Mobile
Thursday, July 21, 2011
News The Undefeated: Sarah Palin documentary is coming to town
Posted By Cheris Hodges on Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:43 PM
Stephen Bannon, director and producer of the Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated, says he didn’t make the movie for people who already love the former Alaskan governor. He’s out to change the minds of those who mock her.
Interesting.
The movie will be shown in the Charlotte area, starting Friday at the AMC Concord Mills 24 (not in Charlotte, which is a pretty blue city). Bannon said the film has tested well in “liberal markets” like Los Angeles and he hopes and expects it to do well in Charlotte.
“We’re trying to roll (the film) out and test it in limited release. We had such a strong response last week in the red states that we’re expanding it in Atlanta and we’re testing areas of Charlotte now,” he said in a phone interview. “There is a big Tea Party group down there from South Carolina, and we’re trying to test it and see how it does.”
Movie critics have panned The Undefeated, but Bannon said the film was made for working-class Americans so that they can understand a side of the governor that the mainstream media doesn’t report on.
“I made this film for people who probably don’t know much about Governor Palin and what they do know, they don’t like. I made this movie for people who think she is Caribou Barbie, a bimbo,” he said. “The story I tell, you see her life and what she’s accomplished and how she’s fought the establishment. You’ll come away with a very different perspective. You may not like her politics and she may rub you the wrong way personally, but you will certainly admire her grit and tenacity.”
Huffington Post columnist Amy Siskind wrote about The Undefeated, saying it’s a movie that she wished Hillary Clinton had made during the 2008 election because it shows Palin without sexism.
The Undefeated is providing such an important service by, finally, introducing Sarah Palin. True, the producer Stephen Bannon does share the same political ideology as Governor Palin, and so has a point of view (as Bannon aptly points out, so does Michael Moore in producing his documentaries). Yet, it's hard to watch the film without tripping over the facts: the character of Sarah Palin and what has she accomplished. Seems pretty basic, yes. Yet, our country has yet to know Governor Palin beyond the initial smear job done on this woman as she entered the national political arena.
Bannon said the film tells the story of how Palin took on the corrupt Alaskan system of government and big oil — a tale he said has been left out of the discussion of the former governor.
“It’s the way the mainstream media has crafted her. I didn’t not interview Gov. Palin for this film,” he said. “The conditions that I laid down when me and my partners put the money up was that she would have no involvement.”
Bannon went back and got archival footage of what was happening when it was happening. “The film is crafted around that and you’re in the moment.”
In many screenings, Bannon said there have been standing ovations at the end.
“It blows people away,” he said. “I’m very confident that we have something that works for an audience because it is an untold story. Think about it: 20 years ago, she’s working on a commercial fishing boat, she’s a blue collar person. Her dad’s a school teacher, doesn’t make any money. Her mom is a housewife. She comes from no money, she’s not a part of the cultural elite or the political elite. She’s never been a part of the establishment; she’s a very anti-establishment figure. That story is what resonates.”
For show times and tickets, log on to www.victoryfilmgroup.com/theundefeatedmovie. Check out the trailer below:
Speaking of...
Comments (12)
Showing 1-12 of 12
Latest in The CLog
More by Cheris Hodges
-
Statewide film series set to fight N.C. anti-gay amendment
Dec 15, 2011 -
N.C. governor vetoes repeal of Racial Justice Act
Dec 14, 2011 -
More Democratic in-fighting
Dec 13, 2011 - More »
-
Knight and Day: Plot eclipsed by stars 1
Cruise and Diaz are main reasons to consider seeing mindless action flick.
-
Lunch Break (9/1/16): Organizers unveil "People, Not Polluters" platform in Charlotte as McCrory officials testify in Raleigh
The morning already passed us by. What the hell happened?
-
Jigsaw, Dating App That Hides Users’ Faces, launches in Charlotte, NCTo Fight Superficial Dating App Culture 3
