Weiner

Synopsis:  A documentary chronicling the 2015 NYC mayoral campaign of Anthony Weiner who four years earlier had been forced out of Congress due to a sexting scandal.

Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg‘s documentary, winner of the 2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, could have been no more than a diligent account of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner’s bold attempt to return to political life by becoming  mayor of  New York City. Instead they got lucky and found themselves in possession of a fascinating study of a man fighting for his political and personal life.  

Bill Clinton-like, when caught sending lewd photos to multiple women in 2011(they accidentally ended up on his Twitter feed) when he was a congressman, Weiner initially adamantly denied the allegations only to eventually admit them and resign from office.  We pick him up four years later after having re-invented himself as a reformed loving husband and father and back in the political ring with a very decent shot at the NYC mayoral office.

Then a 23 year old female Las Vegas croupier reveals that he had been sexting her with lewd photos in the period immediately following his resignation from Congress. As they say, a media feeding frenzy breaks loose.  Why a grown man would sext women he met on the internet is a mystery, why he would keep doing it after his public and private humiliation is well-nigh unfathomable, particularly as he did so under the pen-name of Carlos Danger. Get out of here! Yes, it's true. Clearly voters have the right to question his judgment, let alone his honesty. Sensational revelations aside, the real fascination here is in watching Weiner trying (and failing abysmally) to extract himself from his predicament and persuade voters and the media that his private life is separate from his political convictions.  It’s suirm-inducing but undeniably entertaining stuff.

On one level you want to hand it to Weiner as he wades into his accusers, most of them crowing with self-righteousness probity, cannily using his refusal to quit the campaign as an index of his formidable fighting powers. On the other hand you want the guy to drop his bravado and ask himself some frank questions (such as, as one TV host puts itm "what's wrong with you?"). At one stage director Josh Kriegman asks Weiner why he lets him film his immolation. Weiner doesn’t give an answer but we suspect that narcissism has much to do with it. From that perspective any attention is better than none.

Whilst we don’t get total access to Wiener’s life, we get a quite intimate view of it, including the disappointment felt by his campaign staff and especially that of his wife, Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton, who finds herself mired in her husband’s scandal and forced to make some choices. Mrs Clinton was clearly not amused.

Weiner serves as a revealing portrait of the trashiness of America’s media culture (the croupier, who goes by the name of Sydney Leathers, goes on to become an “adult” entertainment starlet) but above all it is an intriguing portrait of one man’s pride and folly.

Wiener is showing exclusively at ACMI from September 1. See the ACMI website for details.  

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