Steal This Article, Please!
New doc about political reporter Amy Goodman showing at the PMA. Exclamation point!
If you steal it, just make sure to credit Playweek contributor Ethan Fletcher. It’s Ethan’s birthday next Friday, and he told me that the best birthday present someone could get him would be to support The Maine Playweek by making a one-time donation or by becoming a paid subscriber.
— founder & publisher Julia, who has no problem using her friend’s birthday to shill for her passion project of providing film culture journalism to Maine moviegoers. All complaints may be directed to hello@themaineplayweek.com.
When you think of keeping up with the news these days, how does that make you feel? Bombarded? Overwhelmed? Obligated?
Speaking for myself, I’ve felt the need to limit my news consumption over the past few years. Now I listen to NPR while driving, use the BBC for world news, and read my local print newspaper (shoutout Portland Press Herald!). I still feel the occasional guilt that I’m not staying informed enough, but I quickly remind myself that failing to maintain this tenuous equilibrium could easily send me plummeting back into a quagmire of hopeless paralysis.
So it was with much surprise, that after my viewing of Steal This Story, Please! I actually felt excited to increase my news consumption. But not just any old news, only the juiciest morsels, prepared by inventive and experienced investigative reporters will do!
Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary film directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, follows investigative reporter Amy Goodman throughout her decades long career in news media. As mentioned earlier, I lean towards staying uninformed, so I went into this viewing without any prior knowledge of Amy or the news outlet she currently works for, Democracy Now!, but this proved to not be any sort of obstacle when it came to getting sucked into this film.
Steal This Story, Please! begins with Amy Goodman doggedly pursuing President Trump’s climate advisor through the halls of the 2018 United Nations Climate Summit. The music in the background is bouncy and energetic, pairing wonderfully with the delicious sight of a grown adult fleeing as fast as he can power walk away from the diminutive Amy Goodman, who is armed with nothing more than pointed questions. Pointed questions which she asks professionally, with a hint of glee in her voice. This gleefulness, the genuine excitement emanating off Amy as she does what she does best, is front and center throughout the film and the decades of her life shown in it. This attitude makes watching Amy Goodman in action a joyful experience.
To be clear, most of the content covered in the film is nowhere close to joyful. From the massacre of the civilian population in East Timor where Amy Goodman and her colleague were brutally beaten while reporting on the ground to the devastating health risks posed to those in any around Ground Zero after 9/11 and all the way up to near present day with coverage of Israel and Palestine. Amy Goodman has covered and continues to cover some of the most deeply sorrowful and impactful events happening around the world. The documentary shows expertly edited footage of these past events combined with present day talking heads that makes for a visceral and contemplative watch.
I can’t claim any insight into these events or on how Amy and her team covered them throughout the years, only that my own perspective and bias is a close match for that propagated by Democracy Now!. But I’d like to think no matter what your take on the issues, what anyone can and should appreciate about Amy Goodman’s reporting is her dogged pursuit of answers from those people (men, let’s be real), in positions of power.
In one scene, the Democracy Now! radio studio received an unexpected call from then-President Bill Clinton. He was expecting to leave a quick message encouraging the station to get out the vote but instead is immediately met with Amy pulling no punches. He gets fired up in response to her pointed questions and instead of a meaningless sound bite, Amy gets his genuine response. And this is far from the only time she manages to pull off a feat like this either. Asked how she does this kind of magic trick, Amy says it’s as simple as asking the questions that no one else has bothered to.
Amy Goodman is exactly the kind of investigative reporter I’ll sleep soundly knowing is out in the world and after watching Steal This Story, Please!, one I feel is worth listening to. I’ll have to make some space in my day for just a little more news; I have a feeling it will be well worth my time.
Steal This Story, Please! is showing at PMA Films on select dates this month: