“The Film Is a Portrait of Amy Goodman, But It’s Also a Celebration of Resistance”: Carl Deal and Tia Lessin on their DOC NYC and IDFA-debuting Steal This Story, Please!

Steal This Story, Please! is a compelling and often unexpected look at the multi-award-winning investigative journalist (and author and syndicated columnist) Amy Goodman, best known as the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, which airs on over 1500 public television and radio stations worldwide. Since its inception nearly three decades ago, the daily, global news broadcast has been unwaveringly dedicated to telling the stories of those on the “end of the trigger.” And shockingly, it’s been doing so entirely supported by audience dollars: no government funding, corporate sponsorship, underwriting or advertising revenue required (or allowed). Just a lot of fearless gumption — and one giant finger to The Man. Co-directed by the Oscar-nominated team of Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes), the film interweaves a treasure trove of archival material — footage from both studio and field, as well as from the personal archive of the unapologetic advocacy journalist — with heartfelt interviews with several longtime colleagues. (Co-hosts Juan González and Nermeen Shaikh make noteworthy appearances, along with proteges Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jeremy Scahill, who landed at Democracy Now! despite having no background in journalism – indeed, no college education at all. Never underestimate the power of tenaciously begging for a job.) And of course forthcoming sit-downs with Goodman herself, the granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi who credits her “Jewish education” — “You ask questions and you take nothing for granted” — with teaching her to approach the world with “intense curiosity,” and to always “stand by your principles.” In fact, one of the most memorable scenes involves not any US policy-upending (East Timor) or corporate complicity (Chevron’s role in the murder of two Nigerian activists) reporting, but Goodman trekking to Brooklyn to be interviewed by a boy named Daniel Seagan in preparation for his bar mitzvah. The eighth grader had chosen her as his “hero.” (Alas, I learned from the press notes that he ultimately went with Billy Crystal as his “role model,” citing Goodman’s work-life balance as a deciding factor.) Just prior to the film’s DOC NYC (November 13th) and IDFA (November 15th) debuts, Filmmaker caught up with Deal, a former investigative journalist and television news producer himself, and Lessin, a onetime labor organizer, whose first collaboration was “on a campaign to expose and disrupt the illegal US wars in Central America.” (Lessin’s bio also emphasizes her work on the Bravo/BBC satirical series The Awful Truth, which earned her “two Primetime Emmy nominations and one arrest.”)

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.