Produced by Emmy® award-winning filmmakers Garry McGee (McMarr, Ltd.), Kelly Rundle, and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films), the Emmy® award-winning Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon is the first documentary film to focus on the private side of the Marshalltown, Iowa native.
Selected from among 18,000 applicants at age 17, Jean Seberg, of Marshalltown, Iowa, made her acting debut in Otto Preminger’s 1957 Saint Joan and starred in Hollywood films Lilith, Paint Your Wagon, and Airport. She is best remembered for her performance in Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave film Breathless.
Seberg’s offscreen civil rights activism made her a target of the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO. Their plan to “neutralize” Seberg initiated a downward spiral leading to her mysterious and untimely death in Paris.
Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon features exclusive on-camera interviews with Jean’s family, including her sister Mary Ann Seberg and former husband François Moreuil (Playtime/Love Play); friends and film colleagues, including Mylène Demongeot (Bonjour Tristesse) and director Nicolas Gessner (Diamonds are Brittle); film historians and civil rights scholars, including former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown; as well as never-before-seen private photographs, home movie footage, and rare movie and behind-the-scenes film clips.
Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon was an Official Selection at the Raindance Film Festival in London. Raindance is the largest independent film festival in the U.K. and it's rated among the top 10 international festivals for independent filmmakers. The film will have its international premiere in a London cinema. The film was also an Official Selection at AM Docs in Palm Springs, California, and at the California Capital Documentary Film Festival in Sacramento.
The preliminary cut of the documentary was an Official Selection at numerous film festivals in the U.S. including the Los Angeles La Femme International Film Festival, winner at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards, winner of Best Documentary at the Landlocked Film Festival, winner Best Documentary at the Iowa Motion Picture Awards, and at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.
"Compelling...revealing..." film critic, Linda Cook, Quad City Times/Rotten Tomatoes
"Intensely personal and illuminating..." Jonathan Turner, Dispatch-Argus
"A must see...Beautifully made..." Little Village Voice
Film critic Leah Gehlsen wrote: Moving...stirring...a fascinating, little peek into the world of one of America’s most haunted and beautiful actresses."