The Real Russell

CBS (1996)
Director: Joshua Seftel

In the heat of the 1996 presidential campaign, filmmaker Joshua Seftel and author Michael Lewis (Liar’s PokerMoneyballThe Blind Side) were commissioned by CBS News to fashion a report on Bob Dole. Together, the two traveled to Dole’s hometown of Russell, Kansas and explored the underside of the small town. The result is this unfinished, irreverent short film that was deemed too controversial to air on CBS, but premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1997.