Paul Stekler
George Christian Centennial Professor in Communication
E-mail: stek@mail.utexas.edu
Office: UA9 2.112C
Phone: 512-471-6679
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1982
Curriculum Vitae - PDF
Films | Links
Speaking Clips: UT’s Take 5 | P.O.V. - Last Man Standing
Classes Taught: RTF 384C – Modern American Political Campaigns
RTF 881KA – Directing Documentary
Paul Stekler is a nationally recognized documentary filmmaker whose critically praised and award-winning work includes “George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire;” “Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style;” “Vote for Me: Politics in America,” a four-hour PBS special about grassroots electoral politics; two segments of the Eyes on the Prize II series on the history of civil rights; “Last Stand at Little Big Horn” (broadcast as part of PBS's series The American Experience); and “Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics” (broadcast on PBS's P.O.V. series).
Overall, his films have won two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards, and three national Emmy Awards, and a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Dr. Stekler also has a doctorate in Government from Harvard University, where his work focused on Southern politics.
Stekler's latest project was "The Choice 2008," a two hour PBS Frontline documentary about the Obama-McCain presidential race that he co-produced and co-wrote with director Michael Kirk and Jim Gilmore. The film, which interwove the political biographies of Barack Obama and John McCain, aired three times nationally in October 2008 and reached an estimated 7.8 million viewers for the broadcast, and an additional 3.5 million total views on-line.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described "skilled storytellers working at the top of their games to create an intellectual and emotional journey that can surprise you." The Boston Globe wrote that "these two hours are refreshingly free of campaign talking points," while the Baltimore Sun found it "a nearly seamless two-hour film that moves with such focus and force that it feels more like 30 minutes. Storytelling is what drives this documentary with such velocity. This is biography with a capital "B" seeking to bag bigger prey: journalistic, if not historical, truth." And the Los Angeles Times saw “The Choice” providing "a startling contrast to the rest of the news cycle. Why can't the actual campaign be a sensible as the "Frontline" documentary?" It can be watched on-line at the PBS website.
Dr. Stekler's last film Last Man Standing aired nationally on PBS's P.O.V., for their 2004 season. This feature length documentary (edited by Sandra Guardado, who also co-produced) focuses on the politics of Texas, politics that propelled George W. Bush to the White House, by taking a lively, behind-the-scenes look at a pair of 2002 elections-one for state representative in a district that includes Lyndon Johnson's hometown, and the other a polarizing race for governor that pits President Bush's ascendant Lone Star state Republican Party versus an historic multi-cultural Democratic ticket.
Campaign flyers for State Rep candidates Rick Green and Patrick Rose, from “Last Man Standing”
The characters include Karl Rove, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, and especially two, young ambitious candidates for state rep (Rick Green and Patrick Rose), who literally fight it out until late on election night, leaving one last man standing. Liz Smith, the nationally syndicated columnist, wrote "this is grassroots politics, the lifeblood of the USA as seldom seen before." Variety called it "an intriguing ground-level look at Texas politics as a full-contact sport... a provocative pic," IndieWIRE called it "an illuminating and amusing nail-biter about two Texas campaigns and what they would mean for the nation as a whole," the Washington Post said "absorbing" and "funny," the Dallas Morning News wrote "this is an artist at work," and the Austin-American Statesman wrote that "if everyone could see elections this gripping, more of us might get off the couch and vote." John Leonard, in New York Magazine, wrote: "compared to the second bites that pass for coverage on the networks, and the yaps that pass analysis on the primal-scream cable shows, this flying visit to a small election towers like De Tocqueville."
If the above image is not viewable, you may need to download the Quicktime player.
Stekler's previous film was George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (co-produced by Daniel McCabe), a three hour documentary which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and an Emmy in 2001. The film originally aired as a two night special on the PBS series The American Experience on April 23-24, 2000.
Wallace and wife, Lurleen, on the campaign trail.
The film was called "stunning and probing" by The New York Times, "a full-blown Shakespearean saga... riveting" by the Houston Chronicle, "a brilliant achievement" by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "a remarkable documentary" by the National Journal, "mesmerizing" by the Boston Globe, and a "gripping documentary, fluent, explosive… swift-paced and seamless" by the Toronto Star. Newsday said it "sets the television on fire," while The Wall Street Journal wrote that the film was a "documentary filled with enough drama and dark comedy, wry twists of fate and fortune, corruption of the spirit and of the body politic, sin and salvation to make fans of ‘The Sopranos’ forget for a while." And the Texas Observer wrote that the film was "an epic political biography... makes most fictional films seem thin and lifeless by comparison." Film summary, filmmakers’ bios, credit list, press clips, and publicist information is available at the George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire website. Press Clips are also available here.
If the above image is not viewable, you may need to download the Quicktime player.
Vote for Me: Politics in America, produced with Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, was a two night, four hour special that looked at American electoral politics by examining our political culture, visiting thirty states in covering elections from the smallest rural precincts to the White House. The series, co-produced with WETA, was described as a "a landslide of an election special" by the Los Angeles Times, "the standout in a season of documentaries" by the Chicago Tribune, "pure Americana, merry and marvelous and authentic" by USA Today, "the best four credit course on real politics you could ever take" by Roll Call, and, by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, as "a masterpiece, unmatched by anything you'll see this political season in the breadth and depth with which it makes you laugh, makes you enraged and—most remarkable of all—makes you care about politics."
Five-term mayor of
Providence, Rhode Island,
Buddy Cianci (above right),
is known for reaching out
to his constituency.
If the above image is not viewable, you may need to download the Quicktime player.
Stekler also produced, directed, and wrote, with Louis Alvarez and Andy Kolker, LOUISIANA BOYS: RAISED ON POLITICS, an hour-length video documentary examining the colorful, Byzantine political culture of Louisiana, from the days of Huey Long up to the present.
The film won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award, an Ohio State Award, a Chicago International Film Festival Silver Plaque, a National Educational Film Festival Silver Apple, and was nominated for a national Emmy. It was nationally broadcast on PBS’ P.O.V. series in August 1992.
If the above image is not viewable, you may need to download the Quicktime player.
He also hosted SPECIAL SESSION, a weekly statewide PBS program on Texas politics aired during the biannual legislative session. Videostream of every episode is available at the show’s KLRU website. He also appeared in MTV's The Real World -- Austin as the "boss" overseeing that season's "job," making a documentary about the SXSW music festival.
Special Session production team, Paul Stekler with series producers Diane Zander-Mason, Megan Field and Sandra Guardado.
In the last few years, Stekler was an Executive Producer of Be Here to Love Me (directed by Margaret Brown, about the life of Texas singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and was a Consulting Producer on Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home (directed by Peter Frumkin), broadcast on PBS's American Masters series. His last short, SPIT FARTHER!, about the world championship seed spittin' competition held annually in Luling, Texas, screened at festivals in 2002 and is viewable here.
Stekler is currently developing projects on the state of things in New Orleans four years after Katrina (with "Vote for Me" partners Louie Alvarez, Andy Kolker and Peter Odabashian), on the lives of Texas political icons Ann Richards and Molly Ivins, and about life and work of the late Native-American novelist James Welch ('Winter in the Blood', 'Fools Crow').
Dr. Stekler is the Director of Research of the new Center for Politics and Governance, a center within the LBJ School of Public Affairs that sponsors speakers, book readings and panels on contemporary American politics. The Center’s events are available to be seen as webcasts as well, with the Elections 2008 panel as a recent web addition.
Former Texas Governor Ann Richards with the crew of Last Man Standing
Special Session at the Emmys: series producers Megan Field and Sandra Guardado, and series cinemagrapher Deborah Eve Lewis.
