MaxWest B.V. Presents
“My Friend, the Mayor; Small-town Democracy in the Age of Trump” A new documentary available on Amazon Prime Video!
Media inquiries:
Megan Strub: mstrub28@gmail.com
Max Westerman: info@maxwesterman.nl
“My Friend, the Mayor; Small-town Democracy in the Age of Trump”
(New York, July 1, 2020): Dutch journalist Max Westerman announces the release of “My Friend, the Mayor; Small-town Democracy in the Age of Trump”, a documentary film he has made about a liberal Democratic activist and long-term AIDS survivor’s campaign for mayor of a conservative small Pennsylvania town that voted for Donald Trump.
“When Sean Strub, one of my most liberal and politically active friends, told me he was running for Mayor in a small town that voted for Donald Trump, I didn’t think he had a chance,” said Westerman, who has known Strub since they both attended Columbia University in the late 1970s.
“When I visited Sean during the campaign, I discovered not only that he had a chance, but I saw the adage “all politics is local” in action. Ultimately, Sean gained support because his constituents saw him as a neighbor, more so than as a partisan label.”
“To Europeans, it would typically not make sense to vote for such ideologically opposite candidates for national versus local office. But for many Americans, it is desirable, as they see it as bringing a balance to the political system.”
My Friend, the Mayor is an inspiring story of how grassroots democracy can be vibrant, healthy and successful at a local level, even while the two-party political system at a national level flounders in extreme partisan deadlock.
Among the first to be hit by the AIDS epidemic, Sean Strub describes his life as having been “hijacked” by the AIDS epidemic. His political ambitions took a backseat as he struggled to survive in the 1980s and 1990s. Instead he became an activist, founded POZ Magazine for people with HIV, produced AIDS-related theatre and organized demonstrations and protests.
When the introduction of effective therapy in the mid-90s brought him back to health, he relocated his life and refocused his activist energy in rural Milford, Pennsylvania, a small county seat 75 miles from New York City.
How will this liberal, openly gay ex-New Yorker fare in a rural community that voted for Donald Trump? My Friend, the Mayor follows his two-month campaign through to its nail-biting finish.
My Friend, the Mayor is a perfect film for LGBT pride or for anyone interested in American politics, small town revitalization or community-building.
About the subject
Sean Strub is a 40-year HIV survivor and longtime LGBT and HIV activist and writer. He was active with the People With AIDS Coalition/NY in the mid 80s, chaired ACT UP/New York’s fundraising committee in the late 80s, was the first openly HIV-positive person to run for federal office (1990), produced the Obie Award-winning hit Off-Broadway play, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me (1992) and founded POZ Magazine in 1994. Today he is executive director of The Sero Project, a U.S.-based network of people living with HIV combating HIV criminalization, as well as serves as Mayor of Milford, Pennsylvania. His memoir, Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS & Survival, was published by Scribner in 2014.
About the filmmaker
Max Westerman is a Dutch journalist who spent much of his professional life in the United States. From 1991-2006, he was the U.S. correspondent of RTL4 Dutch Television and covered all the major stories from that period: four presidential elections, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Oklahoma city bombing, the O.J. Simpson case, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the destruction of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina, and of course, 9/11.
His reporting on those stories, as well as his features on various aspects of American society, have earned him much critical acclaim in the Dutch press. De Volkskrant called him “ "the brilliant correspondent,” NRC Handelsblad “a shining example to the makers of news programs”.
He has produced two television series based on books he has written. “Max And The City” took a humorous look at New York and “Max in alle Staten” covered American society at large. In 2008 he hosted "Westermans Nieuwe Wereld," in which he compares the Netherlands with the United States. He has also produced documentaries about America's prison industry, the O.J. Simpson case, the 2000 elections and the death penalty.
Trailer on Facebook: “My Friend, The Mayor; Small-Town Democracy in the Age of Trump”.
WEBSITE: MyFriendtheMayor.com
Genres: Politics Documentaries, LGBTQ Documentaries
