Jean Seberg

“Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” Wins Historical Documentary Emmy® Award

“Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon”, a feature-length documentary produced by Garry McGee of McMarr, LTD, and Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films was awarded a Mid-America Emmy® Award in the Historical Documentary category. Each of the filmmakers received an Emmy statue.

“We feel the Emmy win for “Jean Seberg” affirms the amazing life and enduring legacy of Jean, an Iowa daughter, a caring humanitarian, and an American and international movie star.” said producer Kelly Rundle.

Selected from 18,000 aspiring actresses world-wide at age 17, Marshalltown, Iowa’s Jean Seberg made her acting debut in Otto Preminger’s 1957 Saint Joan and starred in Hollywood films “Lilith”, “The Mouse that Roared”, and the blockbuster “Airport”, among others. She is best known for her performance with co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo in director Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking French New Wave film “Breathless”.

Seberg’s offscreen civil rights activism and her financial support for the Black Panther Party made her a target of the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO and their plan to “neutralize” her initiated a downward spiral leading to her mysterious and untimely death in Paris at age forty.

“Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” features never-before-seen private photographs, and home movie footage. It is the first documentary film to focus on the private side of the international movie star, combining exclusive interviews with Jean’s family, including her sister Mary Ann Seberg and former husband François Moreuil; co-star Mylene Demongeot, director Nicolas Gessner, former Black Panther Party leader and Jean’s friend Elaine Brown, friend Mark Adams-Westin; Dr. Jane Simonsen and Dr. Horace Porter in conversation about Seberg's civil rights era activism, and film historian Dr. Rich Ness.

Garry McGee holds his Emmy Award for "Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon".

Producer Garry McGee's research and work on Seberg, began decades ago: “"When I was a student at Iowa State University and in one of many film classes that Dr. Rich Ness taught, his introduction to the film "Breathless" was a whirlwind of information not only about the work, but also about the film’s leading actress Jean Seberg. I recall he ended the overview by noting how odd it was to see Seberg in this small French film, and then ten years later she was starring in the big budget Hollywood musical "Paint Your Wagon". That was enough to pique my curiosity, as Jean Seberg wasn't exactly a household name to my generation.

"What started as a small documentary film ended up being much larger and international, with interviews not only in the U.S. but also in France with people who knew Jean. To make the documentary more well-rounded, interviews were recorded to place her as an international movie star, an humanitarian, and the icon she is today,” McGee continued.

Tammy & Kelly Rundle each received an Emmy Award for "Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon", and an Emmy in the Educational category for their short documentary "Remembering Forest Grove". They won their first Emmy in 2021 for their environmental documentary "Over and Under: Wildlife Crossings".

“My partners Kelly and Tammy Rundle asked who we could get for the important role of film historian for the documentary, and someone who knew Jean’s work well. The first person I thought of was critic Andrew Sarris, but I knew he was unwell and unable to be involved. A split second later, I suggested Dr. Rich Ness. He was contacted, agreed, and the rest is history.”

Garry McGee and "Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon" film historian Dr. Rich Ness at the Orpheum Theatre Center in Marshalltown, Iowa for the Jean Seberg Film Festival.

“Rich was always a supporter of the documentary, long before his on-screen appearance, and long after its completion,” said McGee. “He witnessed the struggles in moving forward with the work, and all that it entailed with post-production editing, fundraising and finding distribution for the film. But Rich was among the small group of supporters who was with us throughout the entire process, and we are forever grateful."

Amy and Mark Adams-Westin of Amy & Adams.

The award-winning documentary features an interview with Jean Seberg's friend Mark Adams-Westin, who sang at her daughter Nina's funeral in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1970. The original music of Mark and his wife Amy of Amy & Adams is showcased in the film.

“Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” was funded in part with grants from Humanities Iowa, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Iowa Arts Council. The film is preparing for distribution and its release will be announced when negotiations are completed.

Produced by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Garry McGee (McMarr Ltd.), and Emmy-award winning filmmakers Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films), Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon tells the true story of Hollywood and heartbreak, beginning when an unknown 17-year-old Iowa girl who beat out 18,000 actresses to play Saint Joan in Otto Preminger's 1957 film. The documentary goes behind the scenes of her rocky life in the international film spotlight, her civil rights activism that drew FBI attention, and her mysterious death in Paris in 1979. The documentary is in the distribution phase.

Visit JeanSebergMovie for updates on the documentary, glimpses behind-the-scenes, all things Jean Seberg, and upcoming news on the film's release.

For more on Jean Seberg read Garry McGee's books: Jean Seberg--Breathless, Neutralized: the FBI vs. Jean Seberg (with Jean Russell Larson) and The Films of Jean Seberg (with Michael Coates-Smith). 

"Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon" Enshrines the Multifaceted Leading Lady

"The film is praiseworthy for the extraordinary dissemination process it provides in bringing to the silver screen the many sides of one of cinema’s greatest icons."

Excerpts from Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi's film review
Cinema Daily

Raindance, the largest independent film festival in the U.K., serves as platform for the international premiere of Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon. This documentary — produced by Emmy nominated and award-winning filmmakers Garry McGee, Kelly Rundle, and Tammy Rundle — is the first in its kind to delve into the private side of the Marshalltown, Iowa native.

The motion picture is very dutiful in retracing the biography of the most beautiful and preyed upon actress in film history. Jean’s professional journey began when she was just a teenager, in a tiny unknown American town, and was selected among 18,000 applicants at the age of 17 for Otto Preminger’s 1957 Saint Joan...

Throughout the documentary, footage of her interviews and most notable performances are intertwined within the narrative, and include scenes from Hollywood movies such as Lilith, Paint Your Wagon and Airport. Needless to say that there is also Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave film Breathless (À bout de souffle) — since it was a career changer for the stars and stripes ingénue, who eventually became the darling of European cinema.

Besides her extraordinary career as an actress and unbridled personal life, the film highlights Seberg’s off-screen civil rights activism and how her support of the Black Panther Party made her a target of the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO, through a media defamation strategy that was ordered by J. Edgar Hoover to “neutralise” Seberg. The secret service instigated the rumour that the father of Jean’s second unborn child was a “black militant,” with whom the actress had had an affair despite being married to her second husband. The story that broke out on Newsweek magazine and multiple newspapers, across the United States, caused such a shock to Seberg that it sent her into premature labour three months early. The child, Nina Hart Gary, lived for two days before dying; her mother took her dead daughter to her hometown for a funeral with an open coffin service, to prove that her infant was white and the press accusation was slander. This circumstance affected Seberg’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being, initiating a downward spiral that lead to her mysterious and untimely death in Paris...

The archival research behind this cinematic chronicle is impressive, as much as the on-camera interviews with Jean’s family, like her sister Mary Ann Seberg and former husband François Moreuil; friends and film colleagues, such as Mylène Demongeot and director Nicolas Gessner; film historians and civil rights scholars, including former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown.

...The film is praiseworthy for the extraordinary dissemination process it provides in bringing to the silver screen the many sides of one of cinema’s greatest icons.

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Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi works as film critic and journalist who covers stories about culture and sustainability. With a degree in Political Sciences, a Master’s in Screenwriting & Film Production, and studies at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Chiara has been working in the press since 2003. Italian by blood, British by upbringing, fond of Japanese culture since the age of 7, once a New Yorker always a New Yorker, and an avid traveller, Chiara collaborates with international magazines and radio-television networks. She is also a visual artist, whose eco-works connect to her use of language: the title of each painting is inspired by the materials she upcycles on canvas. Her ‘Material Puns’ have so far been exhibited in four continents, across ten countries. She is a dedicated ARTivist, donating her works to the causes and humanitarians she supports, and is Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan.