A Documentary Detour

Documentary Notebook is a weekly newsletter for people interested in the state of the genre, people behind the camera, and the process of making documentaries.

I never anticipated writing a newsletter about Stephen Bannon and documentary filmmaking.

But here we are, as they say.

You may have missed this New York Times story from last week that was based on newly revealed documents in the Epstein Files.

Bannon leaned on his previous career as a filmmaker and film distributor to dodge and deflect clear evidence he spent lots of quality time with the convicted child molester and trafficker.

In the six months before Mr. Epstein was arrested and charged with the sex trafficking of minors in July 2019, Mr. Bannon’s name appears nearly every day in the files, often because the two men exchanged texts.

In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Bannon said his relationship with Mr. Epstein was strictly professional.

“I am a filmmaker and TV host with decades of experience interviewing controversial figures,” he said. “That’s the only lens through which these private communications should be viewed — a documentary filmmaker working, over a period of time, to secure 50 hours of interviews from a reclusive subject.”

I get that Epstein felt the need to be reclusive during that time.

But fifty hours! Not too reclusive, in fact.

The guy did like to talk, it turns out.

The Guardian story about the Bannon film had this headline:

"Do you think you’re the devil himself?": highlights from the bizarre, newly released Bannon-Epstein interview.

Back to The Times:

A spokesman for Mr. Bannon said his client sought only to ingratiate himself with Mr. Epstein for the documentary. But written communications during the year and a half before Mr. Epstein’s death in custody in August 2019 suggest that far from wary, Mr. Epstein was eager to cater to Mr. Bannon’s wishes and needs. [emphasis added]

And if ingratiating oneself were not enough, we have the question of documentary ethics — a major misnomer when it comes to these two, Bannon and Epstein.

The Times reporter saw the problem:

He [Epstein] shipped Mr. Bannon and his son Apple watches. He offered Mr. Bannon his private jet to fly around Europe, joking: “How does it feel to have the most highly paid travel agent in history? 

And here I am, hesitating about accepting a lunch paid for by a subject I'm filming.

So why haven’t we heard anything about this documentary, if it’s for real?

It’s not listed on Bannon’s IMDB page.

A spokesman said Mr. Bannon planned to release the film, now six years in the making, later this year.

Sure, it can take years to release a film. But based only on interviews, financed by Bannon himself? That would take like six months.

Mr. Epstein was worried that he came across as too glib in the footage, like “prince of darkness meets the joker,” he wrote in one message. But Mr. Bannon reassured him, saying his film crew had been mesmerized because they had been expecting a “monster.”

I haven’t brought myself to watch American Dharma, the film made by Errol Morris about Steve Bannon. So, I can’t say who might be the bigger monster.

If you have any interest in watching, here are two hours that were made public — about 4% of what was reported to have been shot.

It’s unclear how the raw video even got into the Epstein Files.

Did Bannon give Epstein a copy? And it got swept up with all the other documents?

Did Bannon turn the footage over to the feds voluntarily? And why would he do that, except as a CYA move.

Perhaps Bannon needed to demonstrate he was working legit as a filmmaker so as to avoid being named a co-conspirator.

In doing some digging about Bannon qua filmmaker I came across this interview Sean Penn gave on Conan. Turns out Bannon was an investor/producer on The Indian Runner, one of Penn’s finer pictures as a director. Strange.

There’s also this fascinating story by producer Marie Therese Guirgis posted on the Talkhouse, about her experience making a film about Bannon, The Brink, directed by Alison Klayman.

That Bannon would use documentary filmmaking as an alibi is hilarious.

That we get to listen to him interview Epstein raw and uncut is fascinating, in a macabre sort of way. Bannon, like most big shots who try their hand being interviewers, can’t seem to formulate clear and concise questions. Bannon plods along, yammering away, as if he’s the subject.

I don’t look forward to watching the finished film. But I will be watching to see if it ever gets released.

Comments are now open. Please let me know what you think, what you like, and what you might want to hear more about.