Product Description

This Oscar -nominated documentary is both a poignant profile of former Gov. Booth Gardner as he battles the physical and mental onslaught of Parkinson's Disease, and an exploration of the contentious debate between proponents and foes of Initiative 1000, a controversial bill championed by Gardner that put assisted suicide to a vote in the State of Washington during the 2008 election. Filmmaker Daniel Junge (HBO's They Killed Sister Dorothy) and his team were given exclusive access to the former governor at his home near Tacoma and around the state during the campaign; Junge also follows opponents to I-1000, including Eileen Geller and Duane French, who argue passionately against passage of the bill, sometimes in the company of Gardner himself, in the weeks leading up to the vote. The result is an intimate, compassionate re-examination of the topic of legalized suicide, as well as the political process that must be followed when attempting to change America's laws.

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Documentary director Daniel Junge hits pay dirt in the subject of his HBO film The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner. Gardner, a two-term governor of Washington State in the late '80s and early '90s, was one of the most popular politicians in the Pacific Northwest--energetic, avuncular, intensely focused. After he retired from office, hoping for an appointment in the Clinton administration that didn't come, Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. It's here that The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner takes focus. In the mid-2000s, Gardner, who had been living with the disease for many years, decided to put his considerable focus behind a statewide initiative called "Death with Dignity," which would allow a terminally ill patient with less than six months to live the ability to decide whether to live or die. If that sounds like a grim or dry subject, it's to both Junge's and Gardner's credit that The Last Campaign is absolutely captivating, and makes no judgment about the stand the former governor makes. Instead, it shows Gardner, speech slurred so that subtitles are necessary, and walking haltingly, drumming up the grassroots organizations that propelled him into political success earlier in his life. "Why should I not have control over the most important decision in my life?" he says quietly, but with force. The ballot measure went before statewide vote in 2008; only Oregon had been able to pass such a measure over the strong anti-campaign by the Catholic Church, groups of disabled citizens, and others. Throughout all the political debate, Gardner is respectful but never wavers in his commitment. The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner was nominated for an Oscar for best short documentary, and Junge's crisp, economical style feels like it's telling a much broader story than the 37 minutes the story lasts. No matter where the viewer stands on the subject, The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner is a fair-minded and gripping portrait of a warrior late in his career, bowed but not broken. --A.T. Hurley