Press Room

SELECT PRESS COVERAGE

• VARIETY – An Engrossing Documentary on a Fight For Tribal Government Transparency
  “This first directorial feature for Landsberry-Baker (a Muscogee Creek tribeswoman and the executive director of the Native American Journalists Association) and veteran editor Peeler has the slightly giddy ‘are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ tenor of a classic muckraking narrative like All the President’s Men. That faint retro flavor is nicely amplified by Denisse Ojeda’s vintage-sounding electronic score. There’s an attractively spacious feel to Tyler Graim’s widescreen photography, mirroring local landscapes, while Jean Rheem’s editing balances characterful detail and humor with considerable narrative propulsion… Bad Press tells a tale we’d love never to see played out again— yet watching it is undeniably entertaining.”
• THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – An Eye-Opening Exposé on Democracy and Journalistic Freedom
  “Landberry-Baker and Peeler’s documentary is thus the perfect illustration of what happens when you dismantle the Fourth and Fifth Estates and wind up putting democracy in peril, and it’s something everyone in America should be worried about right now.”
• THE NEW YORK TIMES – Critic’s Notebook – also a New York Times Critic’s Pick!
  “…a movie can grab hold of you simply through the power of its subject. That’s true of Bad Press, an absorbing, eye-opening look at the fight for a free and open press in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler.”
• PASTE MAGAZINE – Intimate, Engrossing Bad Press Breaks Ground for an Indigenous Free Press
  “Bad Press is wonderful, tightknit political and journalistic non-fiction…It does what small-scale documentaries do best, and have been doing exceptionally since Harlan County, USA: Finding the global in the specific, and finding the personal in the ideological.”“The filmmaking, confident and immersive, imbues the film with gravity. Context is efficient; characters are cultivated. Its procedural construction is thoroughly convincing, involving and educational. We care about the issue, but we care more about it because the issue comes with faces.”
• UNDERSCORE NEWS – ‘Bad Press’ Chronicles Muscogee Journalism Victory
  “The documentary Bad Press brings viewers on a suspense-filled adventure, following a handful of dedicated Indigenous journalists over a nearly four-year sparring match with tribal council over their demand that freedom of the press be written into tribal law. The film dives into government corruption and highlights how an independent press informs and educates tribal citizens, thus strengthening tribal sovereignty as a whole.”

• SLASH FILM – The Distinctly Native American Documentary Delivers On All Fronts
  “I was on the edge of my seat watching Bad Press…this is a human interest story, and you can’t help but care about what happens to this community.”“…it does benefit from some genuinely exciting twists and turns, which elevates an already dynamite documentary. It educates. It entertains. It empowers. What more could you want?”
• POV MAGAZINE – Riveting Doc Fights for Independent Media
  “Landsberry-Baker and Peeler find strong characters to fuel this essay about the lifeblood that outlets like Mvskoke Media are to a community. From villainously shady figures on the National Council, to colourful, offbeat journos and an editor in way over her head, Bad Press illustrates how a functional, editorially sound newsroom keeps a community moving forward.”“Bad Press finely blends factual reportage with character-driven storytelling to captivate audiences in a tale that should have all viewers at the edges of their seats.”
• ROGER EBERT.COM
  “Landsberry-Baker and Peeler manage to capture—several times—that pit in your stomach feeling that occurs when you’re watching the votes roll in for an election that has steep ramifications depending on its outcome.”
• NASHVILLE SCENE – 10 Standouts From the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
  “Imagine Spotlight if it were a documentary about the fight for freedom of the press in the tribal nations, and you’ll have a good idea for how Bad Press plays out. It’s one of the best American films about journalism to come along in the past decade… this is a must-see documentary.”
• FILM THREAT
  “As a film, all these ideas are raised with a skillful eye…There is a flow to the documentary that gives the viewer an informed perspective without sacrificing emotional truth.”
• COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE – Meet Angel Ellis, a free-press crusader and star of this year’s True Life Fund film
  “This year’s True Life Fund film, “Bad Press,” delivers an everyday icon in Angel Ellis.”