I found out about this 90-minute Gun Fight HBO doc through a Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Tweet, leading to their Facebook page, leading to this picture of gun control advocate and Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard towering over Oscar-winning documentary producer Barbara Kopple, standing in front of a movie poster that revealed HBO’s patronage, leading to HBO’s Gun Fight micro-site. Apparently, the film “investigates the complex issues surrounding gun ownership in the U.S.” So more gun control advocacy dressed-up as a documentary. Right? . . .
Dunno. The doc’s synopsis says the filmmaker interviews “citizens and activists on both sides of the not-so-black-and-white gun ownership issue.” Ironically, Kopple’s done ads for Target. Not-so-ironically, those Oscars were awarded for her pro-union documentaries.
Make of that what you will. But the fact that Kopple’s posing in front of Colin Goddard, “star” and promoter of the pro gun control documentary Living for 32, indicates a certain bias. Kopple certainly has experience making unsympathetic people look sympathetic, and vice versa.
For example, Kopple’s website scrapes a Daily News review to describe her documentary D.C. Sniper’s Wife.
[John] Muhammed wasn’t a lone nut in a log cabin. He was a person who held a job who became terribly angry over what he apparently considered an uncorrectable injustice . . . since his actions stemmed from feelings that at some point most people have, we have to assess him as a person, not a monster.
Of course we have an open mind. Gun Fight airs Wednesday April 13 and 9:30pm EST.