CRAWFORD has sold out screenings at major festivals since 1,200 people attended its SXSX spotlight premiere. The film has been highly praised in Variety, Texas Monthly, Film Threat, Politico.com, The Dallas Morning News and Premiere Magazine among many others.
CRAWFORD has been featured on national TV (MSNBC) and four NPR affiliates, lauded by Jake Gyllenhaal and Richard Linklater and linked to by the NYT’s Frank Rich. Its director, Modigliani has been called one of the “next great Texas directors” and the “anti-Moore.”
Two different AP stories covering CRAWFORD’s screening in the town of Crawford, TX ran in over 110 news outlets across the country and around the world. CRAWFORD’s momentum continued with its recent win of the Brooklyn Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best Documentary and its European Premiere at the Munich Film Festival. Its trailer has been viewed 34, 203 times on www.crawfordmovie.com – more than half of that in the last month. It’s an undeniably pertinent, colorful story, with a behind-the-scenes angle that’s in high demand as the conversation over Bush legacy begins. The following is a comprehensive list of press coverage with relevant pull quotes and links to the print or video source.
VARIETY – 3/12/08
“… a poignant account… populated with colorful, contrasting characters…”
POLITICO.COM – 3/11/08
“CRAWFORD received standing ovations at South by Southwest.”
THE NEW YORK SUN – 3/13/08
“….revelatory: a deeply committed piece of high-def storytelling.”
JAKE GYLLENHAAL – 3/4/08
“Vital…Engaging…CRAWFORD has the potential to disrupt narratives and change the way people think.”
PREMIERE MAGAZINE on 3/24/08
“…a richly compelling microcosmic portrait.”
TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE – 2/8/08
“Modigliani is one of four next great Texas directors.”
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – 6/8/08
(Feature story on screening in Crawford, TX itself on a 50 ft. outdoor screen)
One hundred ten (110) news outlets across the country (including 27 states) and publications around the world pick up the story, including:
Los Angeles Times
USA Today
The Washington Post
Chicago Sun Times
The Boston Globe
International Herald Tribune
IndieWire
Newsweek
Yahoo.com
The Guardian (London)
MSN.com
Foxnews.com
MSNBC NATIONAL TV – 5/10/08, 10:40am EST
MSNBC Interviews Modigliani Live from Crawford, TX on the morning of Jenna Bush’s Wedding (3:30)
NEW YORK TIMES - 4/20/08
Frank Rich links to CRAWFORD in his column (click on ‘country house’)
CINEMABLEND.COM – Sunday 3/9/08
“….a fresh, unique perspective…immensely even-handed, entertaining, and incredibly affecting….”
ROOFTOPFILMS.COM on 3/6/08
“A touching, even-handed, and genuinely significant film.”
FILMTHREAT.COM on 3/17/08
“The right mingles with the left, no one is declared a winner…a brilliant job…refreshing to have such a politically charged environment delivered to the viewer with such an even hand.”
AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN – 3/8/08
(Front Page Entertainment Section)
“…surprising, satisfying dissonance.”
MOVING PICTURES MAGAZINE – 3/24/08
“…an effective and engaging flick…”
RICHARD LINKLATER – 2/27/08
“…a breakthrough film; a must-see of this year’s docs.”
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – 3/7/08
“…festival favorite”
INDIEWIRE.COM – 6/11/08
(CRAWFORD Wins Audience Award at Brooklyn Film Festival)
VARIETY INTERVIEW – 3/13/08
(Variety Interviews Modigliani at SXSW)
DALLAS MORNING NEWS – 6/4/08
Front Page Entertainment Section: FULL PAGE SPLASH with picture of Modigliani
Interview with Modigliani: “This is no Michael Moore diatribe….it’s not a political polemic. The film is not about Bush. The film is about the people of Crawford. Honestly, I’m tired of films in the Michael Moore style that I think alienate the very people that a film could welcome into a conversation. It’s been very meaningful to me that the people in the film, some of whom are very conservative, have supported it. If the film is controversial, it would only be because it portrays each subject of the film as truly as possible.”
PEGASUSNEWS.COM on 4/5/08
“…potent documentary…remarkable”
“…the truth of the place (and its citizens) is stranger and far more wonderful than fiction.”
THE AUSTINIST on 6/6/08
“…hilarious and heart thrashing documentary…”
FLICKHEAD.COM – 2/28/08
“…smart and absorbing…a microcosm of a nation.”
DER SPIEGEL (GERMANY) – 5/31/08
Major feature in the most widely read German news source.
LOS ANGELES TIMES – 3/11/08
Featured SXSW documentary film.
WACO TRIBUNE – 6/6/08
Front Page Entertainment Section & Interview: “CRAWFORD Director the ‘Anti-Moore’”
NBC Austin Affiliate KXAN
5 Minute Feature on 10pm News including interview with Modigliani
MEETINTHELOBBY.COM – 4/8/08
“… surprising, enlightening…highly recommended.”
BOSTON GLOBE – 4/27/08
(”Celebrity News”)
Mary Steenburgen (on advisory board of film) accompanies Modigliani to Boston premiere of CRAWFORD
HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE.COM – 3/9/08
Feature post: “Moises Chiullan is raving about David Modigliani’s ‘Crawford’”
NPR: KUT (AUSTIN) on 3/4/08
KUT’s John Aielli interviews Modigliani on Prime Time Morning Show …CRAWFORD’s (originally produced) credits song plays 9 times throughout the week.
INDIEWIRE.COM on 1/20/08
(SXSW Festival Head Programmer Matt Dentler’s CRAWFORD Blog)
“…a provocative, yet balanced, nonfiction portrait…”
VARIETY Festival Central – 6/12/08
(Feature on screening in Crawford, TX on front page of SXSW section.)
ADVOCATEINSIDER.COM on 4/5/08
“…a very well crafted film…incredibly candid and emotional moments.”
VARIETY blog – 6/13/08
(Post by Mike Jones with pictures of CRAWFORD in Crawford.)
GUIDELIVE.COM (DALLAS MORNING NEWS) – 5/23/08
“David Modigliani is suddenly all over the place…with the acclaimed documentary…”
INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL OF BOSTON on 4/27/08
(By Popular Demand, IFFB Adds a Third Screening of CRAWFORD)
THE BERKELY BEACON – 4/24/08
“Sometimes the best documentarians are the ones that shut up and listen.”
“Modigliani allows the film to evolve from a close-up portrait of a neighborhood into an acute microcosm of the current left-right debate in America.”
BOSTONIST.COM on 4/24/08
Review & Interview with Modigliani
Modigliani: “For them [the people of Crawford] to stand behind it, to say ‘we’re fairly represented here’ and to enjoy the movie — that was the best review we could have gotten.”
IFC NEWS on 03/08
IFC Interviews Modigliani
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM – 3/7/08
“…the film captures a place in transition, as Crawford becomes a tourist attraction, a media encampment, a protest site and a prism through which much of the world sees Texas.”
THE TEXAS OBSERVER – 3/7/08
Four-page feature.
“Modigliani honors that spirit of egalitarianism by focusing his film not on Bush and other grandees, but rather on half a dozen unfamiliar figures, men and women who live their lives in Crawford out of range of the scores of TV cameras deployed to cover the big cheeses melting in the Texas sun.”
WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE – 5/8/08
News & Politics Section Feature
NBC Austin Affiliate KXAN – 3/15/08
Exclusive 11 Minute Interview with Modigliani leading up to SXSW
COLLEGEMOVIEREVIEW.COM by Stephen Davis
“…a new outlook…a humane, personable aspect…be sure to catch this film.”
“Modigliani makes his mark on the world of filmmaking.”
FOX 8 MORNING NEWS – 3/7/08
FOX’s Lauren Petrowski Interviews Modigliani
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE – 3/7/08
(Full page feature with splash photo)
“…accurately depicting the people of Crawford in a way the national media all but ignored.”
TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO – 3/7/08
Extended Interview with Modigliani.
THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST – 2/27/08
Front page cover and inside splash in Crawford, Texas’ former newspaper.
“He [Modigliani] found some serious gems.”
MEETINTHELOBBY.COM – 4/8/08
Norm Schrager interviews Modigliani
THE AUSTINIST – 3/6/08
(Second feature on Austin’s most widely read culture website)
“It’s an examination of what happens when a town of 705 is forced to accommodate a Halliburton-sized PR machine, and the irrevocable growing pains that linger in town long after the fuss has died down.”
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE on 5/10/08
(Sunday Style Section Feature)
QIK.COM, VERGE NEW MEDIA on 5/10/08
(Jim Long interviews Modigliani in Crawford, TX during Jenna Bush’s wedding.)
THE MCGREGOR MIRROR & CRAWFORD SUN on 5/29/08
(Front Page Feature in Crawford’s current hometown newspaper.)
LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL B-SIDE BLOG on 5/13/08
“…much lauded documentary… is crossword puzzle item in Little Rock newspaper.”
WACO TRIBUNE on 1/15/08
Featured SXSW film
AUSTIN360.COM on 1/15/08
(Austin American Statesman Movie Blog)
AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
(Feature story on CRAWFORD in Crawford.)
EFILMCRITIC.COM – 2/29/08
(SXSW Interview with Modigliani)
AUSTIN360.COM – 3/6/08
(Austin American Statesman Festival Guide)
“…a fair and fine-grained snapshot of the town, locating many surprising truths that obliterate expedient mythmaking.”
REALTVFILMS.COM – 3/17/08
(Interview with Modigliani at SXSW)
FILMSTEW.COM – 3/7/08
“Capturing Crawford”
SLACKERWOOD.COM – 3/7/08
Interview with Modigliani
AINT IT COOL NEWS – 3/9/08
THE SCREEN GRAB – 3/10/08
SXSW Review
See Full Story
COLEANDBOBBY.COM – 3/9/08
SXSW Film Review
See Full Story
LONELYREVIEWER.COM on 4/17/08
Independent Film Festival of Boston Review
OFFOFFOFF.COM – 6/3/08
“…hit by Hurricane Bush… a fine documentary that doesn’t make the mistake of coming at its subject head-on… it seems to grow from the soil of the place the president wanted to be from.”
NPR: KUT (AUSTIN) – 3/6/08
KUT’s Julie Moody spotlights SXSW Spotlight Premiere
NPR: KWBU (WACO) – 5/29/08
KWBU’s Michael Hagerty interviews Modigliani in anticipation of the screening in Crawford, TX itself.
See Full Story & Hear Interview
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – 5/30/08
Feature Story: ‘Film Shows How Bush Changed Texas Town’
(This first AP story was picked up by over 70 outlets, including Forbes.com)
