“Democracy Now!” is not a program you seek out when you’re on the fence about the issues. The daily nonprofit radio show, now entering its four decade on both the real and digital airwaves, is as unapologetically progressive as they come. Host and producer Amy Goodman and her team of reporters clearly subscribe to a worldview that the world is divided into a battle between oppressors and those they oppress, and their aggressive lines of questioning are catnip for an audience that believes the mainstream media is too centrist. It’s less a place for arguments and debates than a team headquarters that tirelessly tries to advance a cause.
It’s unsurprising, then, that the new documentary about Goodman plays like more of a greatest hits compilation than a serious attempt at capturing the essence of a person. Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s “Steal This Story, Please!” recaps Goodman’s entire career, from her famous interview with then-President Bill Clinton in which she criticized him for passing NAFTA and “shifting the Democratic Party to the right” to her subsequent protests of the Bush and Trump administrations and her unwavering support of Palestine since October 7th.
Much like “Democracy Now!,” which does not accept advertisers and survives on donations from foundations and individual viewers, “Steal This Story, Please!” is a grassroots effort. The filmmakers are self-distributing the film this spring following a festival run that began at Telluride, and the audience will be overwhelmingly comprised of Goodman’s politically engaged fans. The film’s content suggests that Deal and Lessin are primarily focused on rallying the true believers to get even more involved, not converting anyone to Goodman’s worldview.
Given those parameters, it’s hard to imagine the film not succeeding at its goals. “Steal This Story, Please!” is a profile in courage, presenting Goodman as an unrelenting voice of the voiceless who is never afraid to get arrested or make an enemy in her pursuit of telling her truth. Her career is filled with the kinds of on-the-ground adventures that should inspire plenty of wide-eyed journalism students who haven’t yet realized how much of the job is just staring at laptop screens. Anyone looking for permission to protest, organize, and get their hands dirty for the things they believe in will likely leave the screenings feeling invigorated.
But the components that make “Steal This Story, Please!” a useful activism tool also turn it into an underwhelming piece of art. The film is only interested in portraying Goodman as an unambiguous hero, robbing us of the chance to explore the nuances of a complicated person who has participated in decades of history. There’s not much room to explore how Goodman has evolved, if she ever got something wrong, or express any critical thought about how her bomb-throwing approach fits into the media ecosystem.
There’s no denying that we’re living through dark times, and saying that a journalist subscribes to a simple Good vs. Evil worldview is less damning of an accusation than it would have been 15 years ago. But given how ideologically motivated Goodman is, her story could have been better told by a filmmaker with less interest in adding their thumb to the scale. A less fawning portrait of Goodman could have still reached the same progressive conclusions while giving us a better understanding of what makes her tick and why she continues to survive in a media landscape that never stops evolving. Instead, we’re left to try and fill in those gaps ourselves.
But “Steal This Story, Please!” is the kind of film that has no problem sacrificing artistic merit if it means inspiring a few more people to get out and protest. It’s not a coincidence that Deal and Lessin are rolling it out in the months leading up to a crucial set of midterm elections in America, and the only fair way to grade such a mission-based film is to see how much it helps accomplish its goals. On that front, we’ll all have to nervously wait a few months before we can deliver a proper verdict.
Grade: C+
“Steal This Story, Please” opens at IFC Center in New York on Friday, April 10 and in Los Angeles on April 17, with a national expansion to follow.
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