Director Bill Banowsky’s fascinating documentary A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant, tracks the work of one of our most popular and imitated political cartoonists, and the very modern threats posed to all journalism and satire.
The Australian-born Oliphant has mercilessly and incisively caricatured every president since Lyndon B. Johnson in a career that spanned 60 years and included winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. After working for The Washington Star, he began syndicating his work to a vast audience through Universal Press Syndicate, finally retiring in 2015 — though Oliphant, now 90, has still managed a few astute mockeries of President Trump since then.
The film goes back several centuries to track the history of political cartoons — when they were lithographs and engravings – and makes the case that they were the first memes. It also explains why they’re endangered as print media loses influence, and the Trump Administration moves with a heavy hand to silence critics.
A Savage Art makes the case that cartoonists are often the most effective and direct critics of politicians, which often makes them targets for censorship. Everyone from presidents to religious leaders and their many defenders took issue with Oliphant’s cartoons as he bludgeoned hypocrisy in all forms, by the left and right alike.
The film plays Saturday at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and marks a strikingly detailed and thoughtful debut by Banowsky, who until now has had a wide range of high-level roles in the film business that fueled his desire to direct. We talked with him about meeting Oliphant, calling out corruption, and why AI can never replace a great pen-and-ink drawing.
Director Bill Banowsky on Making A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant
MovieMaker: Pat Oliphant, like you, is a longtime Santa Fe resident. Is that how you came to meet him?
Bill Banowsky: My wife Susan Banowsky and I moved to Santa Fe from Austin 10 years ago. Our first Christmas Eve in Santa Fe was a beautiful snowy evening, and we went around the neighborhood with some new Santa Fe friends to various houses that were hosting parties. The first place we landed was the Oliphant home.
For years the Oliphants had had a big Christmas Eve party every year. We walked into the house. It was full of music and people and fun. I looked to my right and saw this guy sitting in the corner with white hair wearing a white puffy jacket and a red scarf. It was David Byrne. Then I saw Terry and Jo Harvey Allen. And the Ambassador to the U.S. from Australia. There were so many interesting people in that house that evening. We lived just around the corner from the Oliphants and became fast friends.
MovieMaker: Were you a fan of his work before? What draws you to it?
Bill Banowsky: I had heard of Pat Oliphant, but was not well aware of his work. I knew he was a celebrated, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, but I didn’t fully appreciate his career until I started interviewing him for this film, which we began in the summer of 2018, seven years ago.
MovieMaker: You’re a film producer, founded Magnolia Pictures, served as CEO of Landmark Theaters, launched Violet Crown Cinemas, and have been general counsel to multiple media companies. But this is your first time directing. How did your past experiences help you as a director?
Bill Banowksy: My experiences helped me understand what to look for in a documentary film that could potentially appeal to a theatrical audience. I’ve seen what had worked and what had not. And I’ve dabbled in documentary filmmaking in the past 20 years. Fifteen years ago I served as Executive Producer for an Alex Gibney film called Casino Jack and the United States of Money. I had gotten to know Alex when we worked together releasing his film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
I pitched him on a story about Tom DeLay, this pre-MAGA corrupt congressman from Texas. He liked the idea. At that time he had become interested in what was going on with Delay adjacent character, the super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, another corrupt guy in politics. Alex and I decided to make that film. My role was to help Alex raise the money. I really had no hand at all in making it.
Then, a few years later, while living in Austin, I became interested in another story about political corruption involving Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and his efforts, working with conservative think tanks and the like, to transform the two elite public research universities in Texas, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, into something that looked more like trade schools. Their goals were to get control of these places by firing university presidents and stacking the boards of regents.
That led to me hiring a director to help me make a documentary about the systemic defunding of public higher education. That film is called Starving the Beast: We covered six elite public research universities across the country. James Carville was a star of our film, as he was very focused on what was going on with the defunding of public higher education in Louisiana.
The film was prophetic, I think, when you look at what is going on now with the attacks on higher education by the Trump administration. I was the Producer of the film and was very involved in making it, conducting interviews, raising the money, helping create the storyline. That experience inspired me to want to make my own film, a film that I had complete editorial control of.
MovieMaker: What did you learn from directing that you didn’t know about film from your past experience?
Bill Banowsky: They say documentary film making is all about the editing. I think that’s largely true. We had four different editors work on this film over the seven years we spent making it. The last editor was Michael Linn, an incredibly talented filmmaker and editor I had met through a mutual friend, Chris Eyre.
Michael and I spent a week in Chris’s house in Santa Fe while Chris was away working on Dark Winds. I then spent another week living with Michael and his family in South Dakota, spending all day and much of the night in the editing room with Michael. That’s when the final film started to come into focus. I loved working with Michael. He is a superb editor who listened to what I wanted to see on screen, and he made it happen. Learning deeply about the process of editing is what I most appreciate about the experience of making this film.
That, and working with my producing partner Paul O’Bryan, my longest friend in the world. We grew up together in L.A. in the 70’s. Paul is an accomplished editor and filmmaker who has worked in the film industry his entire career. This film doesn’t happen without Paul coming on board three years ago.
MovieMaker: The film focuses on pressures on political cartoonists to tone down their political criticisms. How do you think those compare to the pressures today on late-night hosts, including Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel?
Bill Banowsky: We didn’t intend to take seven years to make the film, but it’s actually a good thing that we did. The timing for this film is right now. A Savage Art speaks to the importance of satire and free speech and journalism, things that are directly under attack today in our current MAGA experience, more so than ever in our lifetime. Nixon had an enemies list, but he didn’t act on it the way that Trump does.
Two-time Putlizer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes was with The Washington Post when we interviewed her for the film; she is no longer there. She quit when her editors refused to publish a cartoon she made making fun of Jeff Bezos — bending the knee (and delivering the cash) to Trump.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Adam Zygllis, also in our film, is currently dealing with death threats against him and his family on account of a cartoon he published after the Texas floods making fun of the MAGA Republicans. That cartoon drew ugly comments from the White House, which led to the death threats. As we point out in the film, this work can be dangerous.
MovieMaker: A Savage Art makes the intriguing point that political cartoons were the first memes. How do you think AI videos that mock political opponents, like those often posted by President Trump, fit into that history? Are they continuing the tradition of political cartoons, or breaking from it?
Bill Banowksy: Maureen Dowd, who is magnificent in our film, recently lamented about the rise of memes amid the decline of editorial cartooning. Maureen’s point was that memes cannot replace political cartoons. I could not agree more. Memes are not art. I could go online this morning and buy a meme-maker program and publish a meme this afternoon. I could not create a political cartoon.
Memes and AI generations are not art, nor are they original works. Political cartoons are original works of art, combined with satire. Memes are other people’s work combined with satire. A meme is half a political cartoon.
MovieMaker: What does Pat Oliphant think of the film?
Bill Banowsky: You would need to ask him that question. He is an amazingly funny and smart guy. I recently asked him if he liked the film and he said “it’s for s—.” And then a sly grin came over his face. I think he likes it, but who knows.
A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant plays Saturday at the Santa Fe International Film Festival, one of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. You can read more of our festival coverage here.