Documentary on Jim Anderton criticised for uncritical tribute
A new film about former Labour politician Jim Anderton at the NZ International Film Festival is slammed for being more hagiography than objective examination.
Last Man Standing, showing at the NZ International Film Festival, tells the story of Jim Anderton's political career through interviews and archival footage. The review finds the film overly reverent and one-sided, with no real challenge to its subject and little engagement with opposing viewpoints. Rather than examining Anderton's life and decisions, the documentary presents him as incapable of failure, only of being failed by others.
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Review: The new Jim Anderton doco loves him too much to make him interesting
Last Man Standing, a documentary showing at the NZ International Film Festival, is a tribute to the left-wing political leader that borders on hagiography, writes Joel MacManus. The difficulty with political documentaries is that the people most motivated to make…