A trailer has finally landed for Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s political sex scandal doc “Weiner.” The feature took home the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year where it had its world premiere.
“Weiner” follows (former) Congressman Anthony Weiner in the wake of
“Weinergate” (in 2011, sexually explicit photos and texts Weiner sent to female Twitter users were leaked.) Weiner, who is married to Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent advisers, resigned from office. “The punchline is true about me. I did the dumb thing — but I did a lot of other things too,” Weiner says in the spot. His decades-long career fighting for progressive causes was immediately overshadowed by the headline-making drama.
Weiner later decided to run for mayor of NYC, a choice he describes as “the straightest line to clear up the mess that I had made.” Of course, his bid for office was derailed in July of 2013 when he was caught engaging in the same type of online behavior that sabotaged his career two years prior. The filmmakers’ unprecedented access offers insight into how Weiner’s campaign fell apart in such an “apocalyptic” fashion
“Weiner” will screen at Hot Docs in Toronto. The festival runs from April 28 to May 8. The doc opens in theaters May 20 and will later air on Showtime.
