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Crawford
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival)
Director/Writer: David Modigliani
Starring: The people of the town of Crawford, Texas
The town of Crawford, population 705, served up coffee and sermons for its loyal generations of townsfolk for many decades before being summoned for its starring role in the political spotlight. When George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, took residency in the small town and proceeded to make their run for First Family, the Connecticut-born Bush needed to cultivate an image of the common man, the beloved cowboy, and Crawford played its part well.
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While audiences, long conditioned by media reporting from Bush's ranch, accept for granted that the location of the property is deep in the heart of Texas, Modigliani's doc takes pride in revealing that the many press conferences and photo ops from the southern locale have taken many liberties to relay the image of Bush's home as a hay-baled, mustang'd pasture - when most of the images have been manufactured not at Bush's estate, but at the local school, and the images have been cropped to ignore the less media-friendly stadiums and structures barely feet away from their "rural" re-creations.
Modigliani delivers his portrait of Crawford most effectively via conversations with the town's players - from the local coffee house purveyor to the sideline denizens of the Division 2A Pirates football team. With locals referencing visits from Saudi princes and world leaders, Crawford's exposure to world affairs seems to have changed them irreversibly, but the small population that one would ordinarily assume to be as red state as they come, is in fact balanced by a healthy dissension not unlike that found in any state across the nation.
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Modigliani meters out both the yea- and nay-sayers in his honest presentation, and should be lauded for delivering an effective and engaging flick while avoiding some of the cool transition tricks often used to keep modern documentaries on the move. Fox News may be the only news that plays on local monitors, but the locals definitely play out their own politics on a daily basis. George W may have ignited a political presence in the town and the town's conscience, but he's also created the catalyst for a socially conscious town on the sizzle.
Will Bush stay on to cultivate both his property and his public persona when his White House stay has past? Or will he retire to the Connecticut countryside? Only time will tell.
For screening times and more information on David Modigliani's documentary, visit www.crawfordmovie.com/splash.html.
Crawford has sold out screenings at every festival since its SXSW premiere, has been praised in Variety, Texas Monthly, Film Threat, Politico.com and Premiere, applauded by Jake Gyllenhaal and Richard Linklater and linked to by the NYT's Frank Rich. Audience Award winner for Best Documentary at the 2008 Brooklyn Film Festival.
Special screening was held where shooting began three years ago - an event soon to become its own DVD. Watch the trailer on the Crawford website or on YouTube. For more info on the event, the film, and the rolling roadshow: www.crawfordmovie.com.
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