ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor PRESS KIT

ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
Contact:
David Hartstein
(512) 417-9511
[email protected]
www.alongcamekinky.com
PRESS KIT
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
FEATURING
Kinky Friedman
Dean Barkley
Wayne Slater
Jesse Ventura
Dick DeGuerin
Laura Stromberg
Jason Stanford
Carole Keeton Strayhorn
Heather Beckel
Scott McClellan
Phil Darrah
Chris Bell
Rick Perry
Matt Labash
Christy Hoppe
FILMMAKERS
Director,Producer……………………………….………………………David Hartstein
Editor…………………………………………………………..Sam Wainwright Douglas
Executive Producer……………….………..……………………………….Paul Stekler
Associate Producers……………………….….….Arthur Reyna III, Geoff Moskowitz
Sound Re-recording Mixer………………….………………..…………Chris Keyland
Motion Graphics Artist…….….…………………..……………………..David Hobizal
TECHNICAL
Running Time……..……………..…………………………………………….88 minutes
Format……..…………………..………………Shot on miniDV, exhibited on HDCam
Sound…………………….……………………………….………………….Dolby Stereo
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
Overview
Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for Governor chronicles singing Jewish
cowboy Kinky Friedman’s 2006 independent gubernatorial campaign in Texas.
See the outspoken Kinky and his army of grassroots volunteers combat voter
apathy in the Lone Star State while his campaign staff strategizes for an
unprecedented four-way race, raising awareness and money for their unlikely
but incredibly sharp candidate.
Synopsis
“Texans deserve a choice, and that choice should be something other than
paper or plastic.” With that, satirist, musician, author and Texas’ most famous
Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman announced his Independent candidacy for
governor. This documentary follows from beginning to end the election as seen
by the candidates, media, campaign staff and volunteers.
Kinky’s was a campaign about political alienation, education, grass roots
organizing and hope – plus a candidate who was both colorful and independent
in every sense of the word. What made his campaign special was its focus on
energizing an electorate that was turned off, cynical, and apathetic to
mainstream politics.
The film begins with campaign manager Dean Barkley strategizing the
campaign’s effort to collect 45,540 signatures in order to secure a place on
November’s ballot. Barkley, who successfully ran Jesse Ventura’s Minnesota
gubernatorial campaign, and Kinky know the odds are against them but muse
about “relying on the little fellers, not the Rockefellers.”
After the Friedman campaign shatters its ballot-initiative goal by collecting more
than 135,000 signatures, Kinky’s introduction to true campaigning begins.
While the huge signature gathering success puts to rest the criticisms that the
campaign is anything but serious, the peculiarities of the unprecedented fourway race, down and dirty struggles with the big party machine and Kinky’s
unwillingness to smooth his gruff demeanor prove to be major obstacles on the
path to Election Day.
Entertaining to the end, Kinky Friedman’s “non-concession” speech is one for
the ages. Despite the outcome, the election (and film) reveals much about an
Independent candidate taking on the two-party system.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
Director’s Bio
Along Came Kinky…is David Hartstein’s first feature film. Now a Texas Jewboy
himself, David Hartstein grew up on the mean streets of Long Island. He
received an MFA from the University of Texas in 2004 and has since been an
Austin-based filmmaker, freelancer and teacher at the University of Texas.
Perhaps you recognize him from The Real World: Austin as a film-making
teacher to the cast, but he hopes that you don’t. David edited Paul Stekler’s
Special Session, a weekly statewide PBS program on Texas politics aired during
the biannual legislative session. In addition to Along Came Kinky…, David is
producing America’s Parking Lot, a feature documentary about Dallas Cowboys
tailgaters, and The Happy Poet, a feature comedy about an organic, mostly
vegetarian food stand from writer/director Paul Gordon (Motorcycle).
Editor’s Bio
Sam Wainright Douglas is a native of Houston, TX and a graduate with honors
from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His 2005 film The Holy
Modal Rounders…Bound To Lose chronicles the surreal saga of the infamous bad
boys of folk, The Holy Modal Rounders. The film played many festival and
theatrical engagements and is now available internationally on DVD. Other
editing credits include Raise the Roof (BBC, RTE) and Left of the Dial (HBO).
Sam’s current film, Snakebit, covers the late architect Samuel Mockbee and the
radical educational design/build program known as the Rural Studio that he cofounded deep in poverty-stricken Hale County, Alabama.
Executive Producer’s Bio
Paul Stekler’s documentaries about American politics and history include Last
Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style (broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. series), George
Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire (winner of a Sundance Film Festival Special
Jury Prize), Vote for Me: Politics in America (winner of Emmy, Peabody and
duPont-Columbia Journalism awards), and two of the Eyes on the Prize civil
rights history series films. Stekler was an Executive Producer of Be Here to Love
Me (directed by Margaret Brown, about the life of Texas singer/songwriter
Townes Van Zandt). Dr. Stekler, is also the Director of the newly founded LBJ
School of Public Affairs’ Center for Politics and Governance. His weekly series
on Texas politics and the legislature aired statewide on Texas PBS affiliates
during the bi-annual session. He has taught in the University of Texas’ Radio TV
Film Department since 1997, heading its production program for most of those
years. His latest work was co-producing and writing Frontline’s 2008
presidential race film, The Choice.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
Kinky Friedman’s Bio
Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman is a singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist,
politician and columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of
popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. Born in Chicago, Kinky
moved with his family to a ranch in central Texas at the age of one. A child chess
prodigy, Friedman graduated from the University of Texas at Austin’s Plan II
Honors Program. It was during his freshman year at the university that he
received the nickname “Kinky” in reference to his curly hair. Friedman then
served two years with the Peace Corps on the island of Borneo in Malaysia.
In 1971 Friedman formed Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys performing
songs of satire and sincere emotional depth: “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus
Anymore” is a race baiting number about a bigot who gets beat up in a bar;
“The Ballad of Charles Whitman” lampoons Whitman’s sniper attack from the
University of Texas tower and “Ride ‘em Jewboy” is a country and western
song about the Holocaust. In 1976 Friedman joined Bob Dylan on the Rolling
Thunder Revue tour.
After his music career stalled in the 1980s, Friedman shifted his creative focus
to writing detective novels and has now completed over 20. His books have
similarities to his music, featuring a fictionalized version of himself solving
crimes in New York City and dispensing jokes, wisdom, recipes, charm and
Jameson’s whiskey in equal measure.
In 2005 Kinky officially announced his campaign for Governor of Texas.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
Praise for Along Came Kinky…
“Along Came Kinky may be the funniest documentary about the political
process in years, even as it raises the big questions about the flaws in our
system of government.”
“Along Came Kinky is a wonderful film because it is funny and engaging, but
also a serious observation of our political process at work and how we are failing
ourselves by not becoming involved.”
“…the story of the man in black, and especially his supporters, is funny,
entertaining, full of passion…and even poignant at the end”
“…the film is a pleasure to watch for several reasons, not least of which is
Hartstein’s knack for being at the right place at the right time.”
“This is a must-see for political junkies and should be required viewing for
aspiring candidates of all stripes.”
“…this film delivers a fresh perspective of Kinky and his dedicated quest to
turn Texas politics-as-usual on its ear.”
“…a remarkably entertaining, warts-and-all recollection of Friedman’s starcrossed 2006 campaign for governor of Texas.”
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
SXSW Review: "Along Came Kinky"
Posted by Scott Von Doviak
Musician, author, comic, animal rescuer and self-described cowboy philosopher Kinky
Friedman added another line to his resume in 2006: politician. Actually, that's a label he'd
be quick to reject, but Friedman did mount a grassroots independent campaign for the
Texas governorship then and now occupied by empty Republican suit Rick Perry. David
Hartstein's engrossing, entertaining documentary Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for
Governor follows the Kinkster and some of his opponents along the campaign trail, through
the eyes of the staff and volunteers frustrated with the current state of the political system in
the Lone Star State.
Friedman launches his campaign with the best of intentions: throw the bums out,
specifically the haircut posing as the current governor. His platform is populist-humorist,
light on policy details but heavy on barbed one-liners aimed at lobbyists, career politicians
and apathetic non-voters. In his black cowboy hat, clutching his ever-present cigar,
Friedman carries himself as a Jewish redneck Mark Twain, and his appeal isn't difficult to
fathom. He's the kind of outsider who can get away with proclaiming himself the only
candidate in favor of both school prayer and gay marriage.
As the race takes shape, two more opponents come into focus: another "independent"
candidate, former Democratic Austin mayor turned Republican Comptroller turned politically
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
expedient "one tough grandma" Carole Keeton Strayhorn, and the eventually Democratic
nominee Chris Bell, a generally colorless wonk. With no party backing him, it's up to Kinky's
army to compile the necessary signatures to get his name on the ballot. Along the way we
meet Kinky believers ranging from campaign manager Dean Barkley to a Bexar County
volunteer who is transformed into a man on a mission through the process of collecting
signatures. One thing they all have in common is a relentless optimism about their
candidate and their chances, even given the fact that Friedman is consistently polling in the
teens. If they bring out the non-voters, they reason, those numbers will be meaningless. But
as one talking head points out, the thing all non-voters have in common is that they don't
vote.
Hartstein captures some hilarious and revealing fly-on-the-wall moments, such as a predebate encounter between Friedman and rival Bell that rides a thin line between "I'm
kidding" and "I'm not really kidding." He's also there when the campaign takes an ugly
downturn, first when Friedman makes some unfortunate remarks referring to Katrina
refugees being "crackheads and thugs," which the press is quick to turn into a "Kinky is a
racist" meme, and later when the Kinkster admittedly brings his C game to the only
televised debate between all four candidates.
Along Came Kinky may be the funniest documentary about the political process in years,
even as it raises the big questions about the flaws in our system of government. For oldtimey Kinky fans, it even offers a few old Austin City Limits clips of the Texas Jewboys
performing "Asshole from El Paso" and "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore." And
it looks like Hartstein may have some material for a sequel: in a post-screening Q & A after
the film's premiere at the Paramount theater in Austin, Friedman all but announced plans
for another run in 2010 - this time as a Democrat.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
SXSW Film
Daily Reviews and Interviews
BY AMY SMITH
Along Came Kinky ... Texas Jewboy for Governor
Documentary Feature, Lone Star States
D: David Hartstein
This is a must-see for political junkies and should be required viewing for aspiring
candidates of all stripes. Austin filmmaker Hartstein takes us on an illuminating ride on the
Kinky trail, where we see a much more personal side to the musician/author than the
irreverent media sensation who genuinely believes he can break Texas' two-party mold by
running – and winning – as an independent. After securing a spot on the ballot (with more
than double the number of voter signatures required of indie hopefuls), it's all downhill: He's
"tired and grumpy," his jokes grow stale, he's unfairly branded a racist based on decades-old
comedy material, and he's a complete flop at the gubernatorial debates. Of course, voters
want more than talk from a "change" candidate, and on that score, Kinky failed to deliver.
Fortunately, this film delivers a fresh perspective of Kinky and his dedicated quest to turn
Texas politics-as-usual on its ear. He promises a return engagement in 2010.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
SXSW Interview: David Hartstein, 'Along
Came Kinky ...Texas Jewboy for
Governor'
by Jette Kernion
Love him or hate him, you have to admit Kinky Friedman is a genuine Texas Colorful
Character, and it's fascinating to see what he's going to do next. (But not running for
governor again. Please.) I started to tell you all my own little story about meeting Friedman
when I worked as an Austin City Limits intern in 1994, but it went on too long. And I don't
want to take the spotlight away from my e-mail interview with David Hartstein, director of
the documentary Along Came Kinky … Texas Jewboy for Governor. The film is having its
world premiere at SXSW this year.
Along Came Kinky ... Texas Jewboy for Governor plays just once during SXSW: Thursday,
March 19 at 7:30 pm at the Paramount. I bet it's going to be fun to watch with a big
audience, especially if a lot of Texans are there. Here's what local filmmaker Hartstein had
to say about the film:
Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for Governor chronicles singing Jewish cowboy Kinky
Friedman's 2006 independent gubernatorial campaign in Texas. See the outspoken Kinky,
campaign staff strategizing for an unprecedented four-way race, and grass roots volunteers
canvassing the state to raise awareness and money for their unlikely but incredibly sharp
candidate.
What made you choose this particular subject for your film?
That is a good question with a few answers. To start, I moved here from New York in 2000
for film school. I became aware of Kinky right away through an old college friend of mine,
Jared Lindauer. Jared grew up here and his family adopted me, inviting me to their home for
all the Jewish holidays, etc. Randomly enough, Jared's grandmother was married to Kinky's
dad. So, I actually first became aware of Kinky at a Passover seder or something like that.
My first year of film school, I needed to do a documentary portrait and I immediate thought
of Kinky, who appealed to me because he was so Texas which was something so foreign to
me at the time. So I jumped into the music and the books and I just didn't get it, just like I
felt that I didn't quite get Texas, and I moved on and made a crappy little documentary about
a guy who worked in a video arcade on the Drag but was an aspiring screenwriter.
Cut to 4 years later and I'd become close with Paul Stekler, having worked on Last Man
Standing and TA'ing for him. Paul hired me to edit his show for KLRU, "Special Session," a
Sunday morning roundtable covering the Texas legislature. I was out of film school and
trying to come up with a new project and I had this obsession with celebrity and politics and
voter apathy. I was thinking about things like why people who would never vote for a
candidate are actually paying to vote on American Idol. At that point too I felt way more
comfortable with the idea of Texas and very much wanted to tell a Texas story.
So there was a moment when my awareness of Kinky as a character and my increasing
interest in the machinations of government and Texas politics collided and I went down to
San Antonio to cover Kinky’s announcement on February 3, 2005. Believe it or not, after
that I didn’t do another single thing to cover the campaign until August 2005. I was working
on another show for PBS out in Alpine, Texas, and Kinky had a campaign stop out there that
I covered. And seeing the energized crowd and really feeling my own frustration with the
political process, chose to dive in to see the campaign through to the end.
How long have you been working on the film?
Well, I first covered Kinky’s announcement on February 2, 2005 and now we're scrambling
to finish the color correction, motion graphics and marketing materials in preparation for the
March 19 premiere at the Paramount. So it's been over 4 years now. I feel a little pathetic
writing that, and since I'm now teaching at UT in the RTF Department, I feel like this project
has been like a PhD dissertation or something. I've learned so much about Texas and
filmmaking in the process and met so many wonderful people that even though it's been so
long in the making, I'm really glad I chose to see it through
ALONG CAME KINKY...Texas Jewboy for Governor
PRESS KIT
What are the "Austin connections" in this film? Will Austinites recognize any
particular locations? (Obviously, we'll recognize Mr. Friedman.)
Hmm, so many. Kinky grew up here in Austin, having graduated from Austin High and then
attended UT. The second scene in the film is of Kinky and campaign director Dean Barkley
talking to students about the signature-gathering process to get Kinky on the ballot. Also,
Kinky had his election night party at Scholz Beer Garden. Obviously Austin, being the
capitol, is the center of Texas politics and all the candidates were running offices out of
here. We shot at the Capitol, at the Secretary of State's office downtown, all over town.
There's a quick cutaway of the Magnolia sign on South Congress where some campaign
volunteers were gathering signatures. Oh, and the Guv Bug (Kinky's pink trailer with his hat
and cigar) drives up and down Congress in the film and right near the UT Baseball Stadium.
There's probably a bunch more I'm not remembering.
What are your future plans for this film?
Well, March 19th looms large. I'm sitting here typing this while in the room with David
Hobizal, who is an amazing motion graphics designer, as he works some really cool stuff.
We're still submitting to a bunch of other festivals and we're looking to Europe as well,
because Kinky has a pretty significant following over there too.
Tell us one thing about this film that is going to make it impossible for people to resist
seeing it at SXSW.
Simply put it's really, really funny and I guarantee you'll see things from each of the
candidates that you'll never see anywhere else.
And if I can be allowed a second thing: I've found Kinky to be a fairly polarizing figure and
I think folks on either side of the fence are going to leave quite satisfied. What I mean is that
if you love Kinky there's a ton of great stuff to keep believing in him and to feel justified for
supporting the campaign. And I think if you hate Kinky and just wish he'd go away there are
some enough in there of him falling flat on his face and self-destructing.
One more thing: you end up with a great insider/full access look at two campaigns, Kinky's
and Chris Bell's. There's an AMAZING off-the-cuff moment where the two meet on the
campaign trail and neither really knows how to handle the other. Kinky's kind of too "real"
and authentic and kind of lets his guard down, Chris goes for a bit of intimidation and tries
to play it cool, but that doesn't really work either. It was something you'd never see in any
other campaign coverage because it wasn't an especially big moment, no pithy soundbites.
But amazing to watch none the less. And then of course there's election night itself with
Kinky at Scholz Beer Garden. That really ended up being a microcosm of his entire
campaign with the night starting out so optimistically and the kind of devolving into a bit of
a mess, but then Kinky comes back and ends the night with the most amazing "nonconcession" speech you'll ever hear.