I saw GORE VIDAL: The United States of Amnesia the new film by Australian-born filmmaker, Nicholas Wrathall, late last week, shortly after it had premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary is one of the most engaging biographical portrayals of a great American author & thinker whom we all – well, at least most of us – think that we know… but we really don’t.
Wrathall engages Vidal and his slew of astonishingly well-heeled friends in a series of intimate one-on-one interviews. Co-produced by Vidal’s nephew, Burr Steers, the film presents a rich archive of never before seen interviews and candid vérité footage. Among the absolutely priceless moments included in Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia are footages from several TV debates between Vidal and ultra conservative commentator William F Buckley Jr., that took place in the late 1960’s.
Throughout his 86-year richly led life, Vidal remained a thorough-bred rebel with an unapologetically aristocratic air about him.
GORE VIDAL the documentary includes commentary and appearances by the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Mikhail Gorbachev, Burr Steers, Stephen Fry, Tom Ford, Sting, David Mamet, William F. Buckley, Norman Mailer, and Dick Cavett.
If there is a current project on KICKSTARTER that completely deserves the support of every progressive, free-thinking American, it is Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia.