It’s hard to figure out just who the protagonist is in the Ballad of Eliot Spitzer, and director Alex Gibney’s film, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, makes the task no easier. The film’s narrative should already familiar to New Yorkers, or anyone with a passing interest in politics (or who reads the newspaper, for that matter). Bronx-born, Princeton-educated Spitzer targets the mob as a New York City district attorney; gains political heat as the New York Attorney General following a streak of successful prosecutions focusing on white collar crime; then rides to the Governor’s mansion amidst a wave of populist energy. Spitzer’s political ascendancy came at a time when New York state residents were increasingly disillusioned with both the economic disparity neatly symbolized by Wall Street excesses, and a corrupt and dysfunctional state legislature that had largely abandoned the practice of good governance. Gibney shows us all of this, as well as the incredibly powerful enemies Spitzer accrued along the way, among them Home Depot co-founder and investment banker Ken Langone, New York Stock Exchange President Dick Grasso and AIG CEO Hank Greenberg.
Where Client 9 excels is in ferreting out the previously unknown details of Spitzer’s story. While much of the press attention surrounding Spitzer’s extramarital dalliances focused on escort Ashley Dupre, Gibney reveals that he actually had a much more substantial relationship with another escort, identified in the film only as “Angelina.” Gibney also lays out a pretty good case for the idea that the federal investigation into the Emperors Club VIP escort service that eventually brought about Spitzer’s fall was a political hit orchestrated by Republican enemies (although it must be noted that all of the evidence pointing to this conclusion is circumstantial at best).
What better way to celebrate the holidays than with some STF cheer? STF Winter Season passes are now available at the early bird price of $99 ($75 for IFC members). Although winter season officially kicks off Jan. 11, we will have a special screening of CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER on Mon. Jan. 10 (free with the purchase of your winter season pass). Season passes can be bought at the IFC Center box office or online here (under CLIENT 9 – click “8:00 pm” then select the season pass option).
Carrying the STF card is a sign of your support for bringing great documentaries to the theater. You’ll see sneak previews months before the rest of the public, discover rare work that you might never see again, meet the filmmakers, and fraternize with NY’s documentary community. Browse the STF Archives to get a sampling of our past; and sign up for a season pass to participate in our future.
If that’s not enough to motivate you, consider 7 more reasons:
1) Attend the special screening of THE TILLMAN STORY on Mon. Dec. 20
2) Enjoy our regular 10 week STF winter season line-up plus bonus screenings (still to be announced)
3) Receive 2 bonus docs on DVD from Docurama.
4) Get free popcorn at every STF show.
5) Never miss a sold out screening (as long as you arrive 15 minutes before show-time).
6) If you can’t make a film, lend the pass to a friend.
7) Support your local documentary community!
And for those of you seeking additional STF goodness for your loved ones, please check out the STF merch page.
As I try to jot down a few thoughts after midnight, I have renewed respect for journalists who cover festivals on a regular basis. I must confine myself to summaries.
In Cannes’ opening days, docs in the Special Screenings section have made a strong showing. I heard reports of people being turned away from premieres in theaters with 300-400 seats of both Sabina Guzzanti’s DARQUILA: ITALY TREMBLES and Patricio Guzman’s NOSTALGIA FOR LIGHT. I caught up with them in market screenings on Saturday.
NOSTALGIA FOR LIGHT continues Guzman’s long effort to chronicle Chile after the coup d’etat that killed Salvador Allende in 1973. The filmmaker’s work began with the epic BATTLE FOR CHILE that belongs in the documentary canon and continued through films such as OBSTINATE MEMORY and SALVADOR ALLENDE. I will admit to feeling like I’d had my fill of this topic after recent works by other filmmakers such as SUGAR CURTAIN (TIFF 06); A PROMISE TO THE DEAD (TIFF 07) and CALLE SANTA FE (which received the top prize when I sat on the jury at CPH:DOX 07). But in this new work Guzman finds a novel approach by training his eye on Chile’s Atacama desert where astronomers come to “touch the stars” thanks to unique conditions that make it an ideal place for a telescope.
Guzman takes an essayistic approach, speaking in his own voice over carefully composed shots that make us alert to the play of light, the sound of wind and the texture of the earth. To study the stars is to study the past, explains one astronomer. He adds that “everything takes place in the past including this conversation – even if by millionths of a second.” Outside the observatories in the desert, a different search for the past is conducted as a group of older women who dig for bodies of “the disappeared” from Pinochet’s regime. Guzman skillfully weaves these two threads together, particularly in a wordless scene near the end that welled up my jaded eyes.
DRAQUILA: ITALY TREMBLES brings a more whimsical approach in the hands of Guzzanti, an experienced Italian provocateur whose previous film VIVA ZAPATERO chronicled her battle against Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire. This time she’s taking Berlusconi to task for his response to the 2009 earthquake in the town of L’Aquila. DRAQUILA has moments of feeling like the Daily Show with plenty of comic graphics and sound effects to illustrate its points. But Gazzanti is no lightweight. She doggedly follows a trail of corruption, greed and abuses of power. For fans of Erik Gandini’s film VIDEOCRACY that raised curiosity about Berlusconi when it played at TIFF and STF last year, DRAQUILA offers a vast catalogue of his malfeasances. She makes the case that Berlusconi took advantage of the L’Aquila crisis in order to consolidate power when his popularity was sinking. In the words of one L’Aquila resident, Italy is a “shit dictatorship” only using television instead of torture. The film has already made waves covered in the New York Times.
On the plane to Cannes, I treated myself to John Galassco’s delightful MEMOIRS OF MONTPARNASSE recounting his glory days in 1920s Paris. “To be able to live well on very little money is the best basis for an appreciation of beauty anywhere,” wrote Galassco. That axiom is hard to apply at Cannes where prices seem skewed toward millionaires.
Yet, the festival remains a gathering place for dedicated art house purveyors. Streaming off my plane at the Nice airport, I spotted numerous familiar faces: Richard Pena, Marian Masone (Film at Lincoln Center); Anne Thompson, Eric Kohn (Indiewire); Richard Corliss (Time Magazine); Tom Quinn, Dori Begley (Magnolia); Jeff Deutchman, Lizzie Nastro (IFC Films); Sheryl Mousley (Walker Art Center); and assorted freelancers. Not to mention, Oliver Stone who has WALL STREET 2 premiering on Friday and is reportedly finishing a doc on Latin American politics called SOUTH OF THE BORDER.
Over the next eight days, I’ll join them in the hunt for cinematic treasure, darting from screenings to meetings and, yes, a few parties. Last year, my bounty included L’ENFER DE HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT from the official selection and TURTLE: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY from the concurrent market screenings – that both wound up at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In my five years of attending, the non-fiction presence has shown a steady increase, including an annual Doc Brunch now in its third year. Among the premieres I’m most anticipating are:
OVER YOUR CITIES, GRASS WILL GROW – examining the world of the artist Anselm Kiefer from director Sophie Fiennes whose collaboration with Slavoj Zizek PERVERTS GUIDE TO CINEMA I presented at TIFF in 2006.
On Monday, May 3 at 8:00 pm director Alex Gibney comes to the IFC Center for a special screening of CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY. For the post-show Q&A, Gibney will be joined by three memorable characters who were entangled in the corruption scandals that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to jail: former Ohio congressman Bob Ney, his chief of staff Neil Volz and former business associate Adam Kidan. Buy tickets in advance before it sells out. (Please note the STF season pass is not applicable for this event).
The Sundance Film Festival wrote: “This portrait of Washington super lobbyist Jack Abramoff – from his early years as a gung-ho member of the GOP political machine to his final reckoning as a disgraced, imprisoned pariah – confirms the adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. A tale of international intrigue with Indian casinos, Russian spies, Chinese sweatshops, and a mob-style killing in Miami, this is the story of the way money corrupts our political process.”
CASINO JACK continues Gibney’s extraordinary directorial track record that includes Academy Award winner TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE and Academy nominee ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM. This month Gibney has a whopping three films playing at Tribeca: THE UNTITLED ELIOT SPITZER FILM; MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA; and FREAKONOMICS.
See him live to find out whether he’s a man or myth!
It’s hard to figure out just who the protagonist is in the Ballad of Eliot Spitzer, and director Alex Gibney’s film, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, makes the task no easier. The film’s narrative should already familiar to New Yorkers, or anyone with a passing interest in politics (or who reads the newspaper, for that matter). Bronx-born, Princeton-educated Spitzer targets the mob as a New York City district attorney; gains political heat as the New York Attorney General following a streak of successful prosecutions focusing on white collar crime; then rides to the Governor’s mansion amidst a wave of populist energy. Spitzer’s political ascendancy came at a time when New York state residents were increasingly disillusioned with both the economic disparity neatly symbolized by Wall Street excesses, and a corrupt and dysfunctional state legislature that had largely abandoned the practice of good governance. Gibney shows us all of this, as well as the incredibly powerful enemies Spitzer accrued along the way, among them Home Depot co-founder and investment banker Ken Langone, New York Stock Exchange President Dick Grasso and AIG CEO Hank Greenberg.
What better way to celebrate the holidays than with some STF cheer? STF Winter Season passes are now available at the early bird price of $99 ($75 for IFC members). Although winter season officially kicks off Jan. 11, we will have a special screening of 
On the plane to Cannes, I treated myself to John Galassco’s delightful 
On Monday, May 3 at 8:00 pm director Alex Gibney comes to the IFC Center for a special screening of CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY. For the post-show Q&A, Gibney will be joined by three memorable characters who were entangled in the corruption scandals that sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff to jail: former Ohio congressman Bob Ney, his chief of staff Neil Volz and former business associate Adam Kidan.