In this searing exposé on the state of democracy in America and the fracturing of the Republican Party, Academy Award®-nominated directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water; co-producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 & Bowling for Columbine) follow the money behind the rise of the Tea Party. Citizen Koch investigates the impact of unlimited, anonymous spending by corporations and billionaires on the electoral process, featuring stories of lifelong Republicans whose loyalty is tested when their families become collateral damage in the GOP fight to take organized labor out at the knees. Alternately terrifying and funny, Citizen Koch is an essential and powerful portrait of our political times.

Citizen Koch
NR – 90 min – Tickets $8
Fri, June 13: 8:00 p.m.
Sat, June 14: 5:30, 8:00
Sun, June 15: 5:30
Mon, June 16: 8:00
Tues, June 17: 8:00
Weds, June 18: 5:30
Thurs, June 19: 8:00

The film takes place mostly in Wisconsin in 2011-12, but really begins in Washington, D.C., in 2008. Funding from labor unions and on-their-ground, grassroots organizing expertise helped Barack Obama win the presidency that year. His victory was also secured by the campaign’s ability to raise money from Americans contributing $200 or less, and to generating a record turnout at the polls. That formula was not lost on the GOP and its high-dollar donor network, which mobilized to counter and undercut union clout, neutralize small-dollar donations, and deter voter turnout in future elections.

The billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch, in particular, saw the Tea Party movement as a way to propel an extreme conservative agenda to the forefront of national politics. They drew on their vast fortune, amassed primarily from oil refineries and pipelines, to fund Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group advocating for social and economic policies that benefit corporate interests and wealthy individuals. The Kochs also heaped money on the Republican Governors Association, which was instrumental in electing a slate of conservative GOP governors in key battleground states in 2010, swinging six governorships away from Democrats, including Rick Snyder in Michigan, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Paul LePage in Maine, Rick Scott in Florida, and Chris Christie in New Jersey. Once in office, these politicians wasted no time before cracking down on public-sector unions, rolling back environmental regulations and issuing tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.

Public television pulled funding from Citizen Koch, due to internal fears that it would upset David Koch, who is a board member of several major PBS affiliates. The filmmakers were able to raise $200,000 via Kickstarter and completed the film, which we are showing exclusively in Detroit. If there’s one political thriller you see this year, make it Citizen Koch.