Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie

At the end of the eighties Morton Downey Jr. took the talk show apart: he turned debate into a gladiator pit, filled the studio with a shouting crowd and blew cigarette smoke into his guests’ faces. The programme was sold with lines like three-dimensional television and rock and roll without the music, and he was given the title father of trash television. The documentary covers that rise but puts its weight on the fall. In 1989 Downey said three skinheads had attacked him in a restroom at San Francisco airport, cut off his hair and drawn swastikas on his face; airport officials reported that witnesses had seen no such thing, and reporters noticed the swastika on his forehead was reversed, as though drawn by someone looking in a mirror. In 1992 Downey admitted the attack was invented; his show had been cancelled three months after the claim. Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger directed.