34TH ANNUAL USA FILM FESTIVAL – APRIL 22-29
CLOSING NIGHT
The Hunting of the President

Who would have thought that the most miserable and preoccupying interludes of the Clinton administration would make such a riveting, even entertaining, film? Based on the best-selling Joe Conason and Gene Lyons book of the same name, Clinton friend and Hollywood producer Harry Thomason, along with co-writer/director Nickolas Perry, have managed just that. Wittily constructed and intercut with Hollywood, movie and other film clips, tightly edited, and filled with a cast of Arkansas characters including troopers, hoodlums and con men, most out to make a buck, that would seem outlandish in a fiction film, The Hunting of the President is alternately hilarious, outrageous, poignant and always fascinating.
Susan McDougal (former wife of former Clinton business partner Jim McDougal), Betsy Wright (Clinton’s Chief of Staff), journalist and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal, and Democratic political strategist Paul Begala are just a few of the interviewees who have plenty to say about the role of the media, their opinions of the players, the smear campaign, the independent council, the behind the scenes machinations, side-switching and fact-bending. With the perspective of time, away from the intensity of the moment and the media, free of their respective confines (in Susan McDougal’s case, literally), the interviews from those who were there – journalists, party insiders, senior staff – along with previously unreleased material, may finally provide an unfettered picture, proving that a story we think we know so well still has the power to surprise, and more importantly, enlighten. For nearly ten years, from Whitewater to Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky, what emerges is, as the journalists themselves admit, a scathing indictment of the media-as-pimps and our society’s insatiable appetite for gossip and scandal. In the words of CNN investigative journalist John Camp, the media changed from “truth tellers to scandal mongers” where “coming up with the story was more important than coming up with the truth.” That said, as a contemporary cautionary tale, this film could not have succeeded better. 89 min. In attendance writer/director Harry Thomason.