INSIDE MAN follows Harris County (Houston) Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a master legislator and larger-than-life character, as he fights for criminal justice reform in conservative Texas. With his belief that even with grassroots protests “you need to have someone on the inside,” Ellis provides a model for progressive engagement with the existing political system as a means to achieve real, lasting change.  The film mingles his current-day electoral activism with one-of-a-kind footage we shot of him lobbying for a civil rights bill on the state house floor in 1995, bringing all of his personal skills to bear as an unforgettable inspiration in hard political times.

Louis Alvarez, Andy Kolker and Paul Stekler have made films about American politics for many years. Besides their many other films (PEOPLE LIKE US: SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA, Peabody Award winner; GEORGE WALLACE: SETTIN’ THE WOODS ON FIRE, Sundance Award winner), their films together include VOTE FOR ME: POLITICS IN AMERICA (winner of Peabody, Emmy and duPont-Columbia awards), LOUISIANA BOYS: RAISED ON POLITICS and GETTING BACK TO ABNORMAL (both aired on PBS's POV series), and POSTCARDS FROM THE GREAT DIVIDE, a series of shorts done with the Washington Post.

ROLLING FILM, ROCKING HISTORY Two legendary documentary filmmakers captured never-before-seen footage of the Beatles landing in NYC during their first US visit in 1964, offering a rare glimpse into this historic moment.

By Bart Weiss