THE AUTHOR
As “the editor of a magazine with offices in New York,” Lewis Lapham (1935 - 2024) won a multitude of National Magazine Awards and was inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame. One of the most respected writers of his day, Lapham was the author of numerous books. The New York Times likened him to H.L. Mencken; Vanity Fair suggested he was this era’s Mark Twain.
THE PRODUCTION COMPANY
The film is a production of The Press and the Public Project, Inc., a leading not-for-profit production company with over twenty years of experience producing award-winning films for both commercial and public television. A consortium of international broadcasters led by the BBC, along with private investors, have provided funding for the film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
THE DIRECTOR
In addition to his debut feature The American Ruling Class, John has directed, edited, and consulted on dozens of documentaries and nonfiction series. He codirected Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle. His editorial credits include the Emmy-winning Thug Life in D.C. and the cult classic Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder, both for HBO.
THE PRODUCER
Libby Handros is an award-winning producer and investigative journalist who has developed and produced more than a hundred hours of prime-time programming on a wide array of subjects: public policy, news, sports, history, international affairs, education, and the movies. She began her career in television journalism at WNEW-TV in New York City and WCVB-TV in Boston.
Part of the team that produced PBS’s groundbreaking Inside Story — the first regularly scheduled examination of the American press ever to appear on television — she went on to coproduce a variety of documentaries: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, for The History Channel; The Baseball Hall of Fame Scrapbook and Hardball, for ESPN; David Durk: Portrait of a Whistle-Blower, for Fox; The Money Go-Round, for PBS; and Trump: What’s the Deal?
The American Ruling Class was her first collaboration with creative partner John Kirby, under the auspices of their production company, The Press and the Public Project. Their second film, Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle, was released theatrically and was dubbed “rollicking” by The Phoenix and “sober, lighthearted, even wacky” by the Associated Press. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Handros and Kirby cocreated Perspectives on the Pandemic, a series of filmed interviews with prominent voices in medicine, journalism, and activism, discussing both the medical and sociopolitical dimensions of the outbreak.
Timed for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the pair’s most recent coproduction — The Responders: Breaking the Silence — tells the story of September 11th, 2001, from the uncensored viewpoint of first responders who risked their lives that day and have since responded to the call to speak the truth, whatever the cost.
They have also been collaborating on Four Died Trying, a long-form documentary film franchise. Years in the making, it examines the lives and assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy — and the unseen power structures they defied.
DIRECTOR
John Kirby
PRODUCER
Libby Handros
SCREENWRITER
Lewis Lapham
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Mark Benjamin
EDITORS
John Kirby & Leah O’Donnell
MUSIC
Qasim Naqvi & Lucas Johnson-Yahraus
PRINCIPAL CAST
Lewis Lapham
Paul Cantagallo
Caton Burwell