Our Nixon (2013)

Feature

Throughout Richard Nixon’s presidency, three of his top White House aides obsessively documented their experiences with Super 8 home movie cameras. Young, idealistic and dedicated, they had no idea that a few years later they’d all be in prison.

This unique and personal visual record, created by H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin, was seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation, then filed away at the National Archives, and forgotten for almost 40 years.

OUR NIXON is an all-archival documentary presenting those home movies for the first time, along with other rare footage, creating an intimate and complex portrait of the Nixon presidency as never seen before.

Visit the film’s full website HERE.

Special Assistant Dwight Chapin films Haldeman filming him at the White House on the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969). Super 8 film still courtesy of Dipper Films.

Special Assistant Dwight Chapin films Haldeman filming him at the White House on the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969). 

Best of Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival (March 2013)
Documentary Award, Seattle International FIlm Festival (June, 2013)
DOKUFEST, Kosovo (August 2013)
Traverse City Film Festival, Traverse City MI (July 2013)
Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico (July 2013)
Rooftop Films, NYC  (July 2013)
Jerusalem International Film Festival (July 2013)
Open City Docs Fest, London (June 2013)
Nantucket Film Festival, Nantucket MA (June 2013)
AFI DOCS, Washington DC (June 2013)
Flyover Film Festival, Louisville KY (June 2013)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles CA (June 2013)
Cinetopia Film Festival, Detroit MI (June 2013)
BILDRAUSCH – FILMFEST BASEL, Switzerland (June 2013)
FILMFEST MÜNCHEN, Germay (June 2013)
Little Rock Film Festival, Little Rock AR (May 2013)
DOXA, Vancouver Canada (May 2013)
Hot Docs, Toronto Canada (April 2013)
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham NC (April 2013)
Independent Film Festival Boston, Boston MA (April 2013)
It’s All True International Documentary Festival, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
New Directors/New Films, NYC (March 2013)
Atlanta Film Festival, Atlanta GA (March 2013)
SXSW Film Festival, Austin TX (March 2013)
International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands (January 2013)

Cheering crowds greet President Nixon on the 1972 campaign trail in California. Super 8 film still courtesy of Dipper Films.

Cheering crowds greet President Nixon on the 1972 campaign trail in California. 

SELECTED REVIEWS & PRESS

“A brisk, eye-opening documentary about the Nixon White House as seen from the inside, this triumph of editing is…a must-see for anyone interested in Americana.” – Variety Staff, Variety

“As devastating an impressions of a powerful man facing the end as we are ever likely to have.” – David Denby, The New Yorker

“This is absolutely first-rate history that instantly transports you to the tumultuous times of the late 1960s and early ’70s when Richard Nixon soared so high and fell so low…This is masterful documentary filmmaking by director Penny Lane.” – David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun

“The Super-8 images are nostalgic in their choppy plainness, catching the president’s men as they toil away in a mode that’s ’50s-square-meets-’70s-lackadaisical. Nixon, hooded yet jovial, comes off as a more vulnerable soul than we’re used to.” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“This intimate time-capsule documentary…[is] akin to seeing the Nixon presidency through the eyes of his top aides; it’s as much a portrait of innocence lost as a behind-closed-doors exposé.” – A.A. Dowd, A.V. Club

Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, one of the amateur filmmakers whose Super 8 footage is showcased in the film, films his assistant filming him at the Great Wall of China (February 1972). Super 8 film still courtesy of Dipper Films.

Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, one of the amateur filmmakers whose Super 8 footage is showcased in the film, films his assistant filming him at the Great Wall of China (February 1972).