Feed
Studio: First Run Features
Rated: NOT RATED
WorkNameSort: Feed
This hilarious “documentary” of the run-up to the 1992 New Hampshire presidential primaries is an incisive political film. Not because directors Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway deftly communicate partisan points, but because this film exposes silly and shallow television-age campaigning. Compiled from behind-the-scenes recording of campaign machinations and raw satellite feeds, Feed mercilessly skewers the artifice employed by both parties in shaping the electorate’s view. Seeing candidates and pundits in the unguarded, unscripted moments just before and just after they’re seen in public only reaffirms what every sentient American already knows – politicians are conniving and artificial – but nonetheless provides plentiful hilarity. Had voters seen Bob Kerrey wrestle with a malfunctioning earpiece (and become supremely bitchy with the tech who’s trying to fix it), his candidacy would have been doomed even earlier. Conversely, Paul Tsongas’ down-to-earth off-camera demeanor is refreshing.
This article appears in Dec 5-11, 2007.