Suburban Fury

Seattle filmmaker Robinson Devor (Police Beat; Zoo) has an eye for unpredictable stories and eccentric characters. In his latest film, it’s not always easy to distinguish fact from fantasy. Certainly Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 in the hope of instigating a revolution. But she failed, and spent the next 30 years in prison. What’s strangest about this story is that she was a suburban housewife at the time. Albeit, a housewife who operated as a double agent for the CIA, infiltrating radical activist groups like the Black Panthers. Then again, are you really a double agent if everyone knows you’re talking to the CIA?

Moore proves a testy, headstrong interviewee — age and incarceration have not mellowed her. How much of what she says can be trusted is open to debate. But as Devor plunges us headlong into the tumult of the era — Vietnam, Watergate, Patty Hearst etc etc — Moore’s story comes to seem emblematic of the age. And to resonate with our own times.

Apr 26: Q&A with screenwriter/producer Robert Fink

A chilling, essential look at a Bay Area would-be presidential assassin.

G.Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

Fascinating… bursting with energy and the thrill of a narrator who can’t quite be trusted.

Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

The strangest and most mysterious documentary of the year.

Richard Brody, The New Yorker