Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
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Boogie Man (2008, 91 min), directed by Stefan Forbes and produced by Noland Walker, is a comprehensive look at Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue, charting his rambunctious rise from Southern political operative to Chairman of the GOP. He mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush while leading the Republican Party to historic victories and transforming the way America elects its Presidents.
In eye-opening interviews with Atwater's closest friends and enemies, Boogie Man re-examines Atwater’s crucial role in America's shift to the right. To Democrats offended by his cutthroat style (to say nothing of the 1988 Willie Horton controversy), Atwater was a political assassin dubbed by one Congresswoman "the most evil man in America." But to most Republicans he remains a hero for his deep understanding of the American heartland, his expert manipulation of the media, and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. Director Stefan Forbes offers a timely documentary for this election year as he examines the charming yet Machiavellian godfather of the modern negative political campaign.
Noland Walker in person.
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Stefan Forbes (Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor) is an Emmy-nominated Director. His award-winning documentary One More Dead Fish, about renegade fishermen in Nova Scotia struggling to survive globalization, was broadcast on PBS. He has written and directed Emmy-nominated, award-winning national PSA campaigns featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Broderick, and others. Formerly a cinematographer, he shot 5 feature films and created a look for several hit TV shows. Mr. Forbes is a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow. Boogie Man is his debut feature as director.
Noland Walker (Producer) is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who wrote and co-produced the acclaimed documentary, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. He co-produced and co-directed Citizen King, about the last years of Martin Luther King's life for PBS's American Experience series. Walker has written and/or directed several documentary films that have aired nationally on PBS, including an episode of the groundbreaking 1998 series, Africans in America.
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Storyville is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.