Dark Money preceded by Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr

Director: Kimberly Reed

2018 / 99min / DCP

“My film Dark Money, which confronts the complicated and hidden world of campaign finance through the eyes of an intrepid local journalist endeavoring to start a nonprofit news outlet in Montana, was influenced by both the films I’ve chosen to share here in this series. Their unflinching, indefatigable quest to hold our elected officials accountable demands that we preserve a transparent democracy by constantly checking it with a skeptical Fourth Estate.” —Kimberly Reed

A documentary with the vice grip of a thriller, Reed’s work of cinematic muckraking traces the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United vs. FEC case by making a primary case study of Montana—home of some of the cleanest campaign laws in the United States for nearly a century, suddenly threatened by a tidal wave of corporate money and anonymous spending to leverage election results. Expertly researched and inspiring in its imagination of pragmatic solutions to the threats it so lucidly describes."

Screening with Kimberly Reed's short film Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr (2024)

Q&A with director Kimberly Reed, moderated by co-host of WNYC's On the Media, Micah Loewinger on Saturday, October 26th