The War Room’s James Carville on the 2024 election
James Carville and Matt Tyrnauer discuss a new documentary about the famed political strategist. Plus: queer conversations from the PN archives.
As the 2024 US Presidential election kicks into a new gear with tonight’s debate, we want to share a conversation that Pure Nonfiction host Thom Powers held with Democratic strategist James Carville and filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer earlier this month at the Documentary Spotlight in Los Angeles. Speaking of the current moment, Carville said, “I gotta tell you something about Democrats of certain kinds: they really feel good about losing. If you want to feel good and smug about yourself, that's fine, but if you don't have power, what difference does it make?”
For over a year, Tyrnauer (Valentino, The Last Emperor ; Where's My Roy Cohn?) has been directing a new documentary about Carville that traces his career and follows his iconoclastic viewpoints on this year’s election. Carville made his mark in documentary history with The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, about Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992. Tyrnauer describes his new film as "a conversation between James and history."
Listen to the full conversation and read edited excerpts below.
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From the Archives - Celebrating Pride Month
As Pride Month draws to a close, I've enjoyed revisiting some Pure Nonfiction podcast episodes that feature work and voices from and about the LGBTQ+ community. Listen to director Sébastien Lifshitz recount the making of 2022's Casa Susanna, the story of a secret Catskills resort in the 1950s and 60s that served as a safe haven for transgender expression.
Filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato discuss their exploration of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, known for his images of gay S&M sex, in their 2016 documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures.
In Framing Agnes, a 2022 Sundance Audience Award winner, Chase Joynt combines archival footage with reenactments to examine untold stories from the UCLA gender clinic in the 1950s.
And after her highly personal account of being the child of lesbian mothers battling for parental rights with their sperm donor in 2021's Nuclear Family, filmmaker Ry Russo-Young reflects on lingering effects and newfound perspectives.
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