Steve Pink’s TIFF Documentary ‘The Last Republican’ Tackles the Need for Civil Discourse With a Healthy Dose of Humor
Initially, “Hot Tub Time Machine” director Steve Pink wasn’t sure about making “The Last Republican,” a documentary about former U.S. Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. As a self-professed far-left progressive, Pink didn’t know if Kinzinger, a conservative whose efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 insurrection, was a worthy doc subject.
“The thought was that we are both from Illinois, so that was cool and we both have a Midwestern orientation, but I just couldn’t imagine a single thing I would agree with him on, except for this one thing, which was clearly that something new was happening here in American life where the nature of our democracy was and is being questioned,” says Pink.
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When the U.S. capitol was besieged on Jan. 6, 2021 Kinzinger was among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for instigating an insurrection. He then served on the Congressional committee to investigate what had happened on Jan. 6. Afterward, Kinzinger was not only discarded by his own party, but he and his family were also the subject of death threats.
Eventually, Pink realized Kinzinger’s decision to sacrifice his career to stand on principle made him a very worthy subject for a documentary.
“I find that when anyone sacrifices something so big, like their livelihood, that’s very courageous and that interested me, even though I didn’t really want to be interested,” admits Pink.
While the film, which follows Kinzinger during his final year in office, could easily have been depressing or contentious given both men’s fundamental political beliefs, “The Last Republican” does what most docs can’t: make you laugh out loud.
In one scene, Pink asks Kinzinger, “Out of all the cinematic visionaries who wanted to make this film, why did you say yes to me?” Kinzinger’s response: ” ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ is the thing that sold me. It’s a cinematic masterpiece. How can such a serious filmmaker like [the maker] of ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ not make me look good?”
Pink laughs and says, “Right. That’s really good logic.”
The docu’s humor allows the film to be bipartisan in the sense that both a conservative, albeit an anti-Trumper, and a liberal’s voices are equally heard.
Variety spoke to Pink about “The Last Republican”; it premiered Sept. 7 at TIFF.
This is your first doc and the the first film from Media Courthouse Documentary Collective (MCDC), a documentary production company you co-founded with filmmakers Kevin Morris, Robb Bindler, Jason Kohn, Chapin Wilson and Sarafina DiFelice. What made this the right film to launch with?
Pink: We were sitting around and all talking about all these projects that everyone had in mind and Adam’s name came up and we just started talking about him as an interesting subject. Then we went out and met him and pitched him. The opportunity to just follow him as opposed to having some prescribed need for him to do something was a bit of a risk because, at that time, we didn’t know whether the Jan. 6 Committee would even happen in the way it did. So we started right at a moment where lots of things started happening to him. We were very lucky in that regard.
It’s not very often that a liberal makes a funny doc about a very conservative Republican. How did that happen?
Sometimes the conversations were very serious and we absolutely disagreed in ways that weren’t funny at all, but then we realized that’s not what the movie’s about. We really wanted to start to explore what civil discourse is. Is civil discourse possible with someone with whom you vehemently disagree with? I didn’t even know that that was possible and I wasn’t very good at it at first. At first I wasn’t actually comfortable having conversations. I was just holding on too tight and was like, “You need to understand that I’m right!”
What changed?
We began to trust each other and because we started becoming friends I felt a lot more comfortable arguing with him about things that I believed in, but without it having that emotional freight. The thing that I was learning is to think of everyone as your friend. If they are your friend, you can give them shit. If they are your friend, you are more willing to hear what they have to say, even though the second they open their mouth, you don’t agree with them, but you are not going to just blast them because they are your friend and you don’t want to hurt their feelings. But you can also be very frank with your friends too. I could actually be more candid with Adam the more I got to know him. When I had a more formal relationship with Adam, I had to be a lot more careful with what I said.
In August, Kinzinger spoke at the Democratic National Convention, where he formally gave his support to Vice President Kamala and denounced Trump. Due to his stance do you think this film is preaching to the liberal choir?
The fact that we are giving a platform to a conservative Republican in and of itself might not be preaching to the liberal choir because there are many on my side who are surprised, and say why would make a movie about a conservative Republican when there are so many other subjects you could make a movie about? On the other side, yes, the MAGA population say they don’t care about Adam, so they don’t want to see this film. So, I’m not sure what choir we are preaching to.
What are you hoping audiences take away from the film?
Civil discourse is probably the key to the success of our society and our communities, period. We have become so polarized. I want everyone to see this film no matter what side of the political divide you are on precisely because we all have to get better at figuring out how to have a conversation with people we disagree with.
Submarine is handling sales of “The Last Republican.”
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