Bad Press is surprisingly entertaining as a documentary, even as few fictional films deftly navigate between human emotions and struggle, election, and voting battles.
Bad Press is a riveting, nail-biting documentary that leaves audiences on edge while illuminating the struggle for a free press. Specifically, it highlights the exhausting, uphill battle within the Muscogee Nation. The press, Mvskoke Media, seeks freedom from control, threats, or reprisals for reporting on tribal news. The movie is tense, informative, and inspirational as members of Mvskoke Media take on the monumental fight to be the first Indigenous nation with a free press amended in their constitution.
The documentary is worth viewing. In particular, it showcases the importance of journalistic freedom is a right within a supposed democracy. Still, Bad Press is surprisingly entertaining as a documentary, even as few fictional films deftly navigate between human emotions and struggle, election, and voting battles.
Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler (Flint Town) direct the documentary, which largely follows Angel Ellis, a journalist for Mvskoke Media. It emphasizes how, out of the hundreds of tribal nations, none have a free press in their constitutions. Meanwhile, only a handful, including the Muscogee Nation, have a law for free press. However, all that changes when the Primary Chief and the Nations Board vote to repeal the act granting freedom of the press. Immediately, they force Mvskoke Media to remove articles. Many of the staff resigned in protest. But they, alongside Angel Ellis, use social media and start applying pressure to the board. With sharp direction, Bad Press captures this long and grueling fight.
Bad Press Shows the Importance of Press to Keep People Informed
While it plays out in the film’s background—the focus is the fight—many people in the Muscogee Nation stress their reliance on Mvskoke Media. For them, that’s how their family, stretching back generations, got their news. Folks need to trust the media to give them the truth regarding events that impact them. Bad Press shows the struggle for journalists in the Indigenous community, shining a national light on a massive issue through this film.
Social Media Comes Through to Aid the Fight
Despite its drawbacks, social media emerges as a powerful ally in the fight for press freedom. Angel Ellis and her peers effectively use it to keep the public informed about the actions of their representatives. Ellis’s speech at a crucial meeting, where the Shield Act was proposed as a solution to the repeal of press freedoms but did nothing to curtail the restrictions, sparked significant pushback. This instance underscores how press freedom became a major issue during elections, thanks to the amplifying power of social media.
Tense and Intense Fight
In Bad Press, the battle is tense since journalists like Angel fear losing their jobs and other intimidation tactics. The direction adds so many uncomfortable moments. For example, after speaking, Ellis is called to speak with one of them, Lucian Tiger III, and hours pass before she returns. All sorts of nightmare scenarios play in one’s mind. Because that is not a meeting; that’s an interrogation meant to scare her to back down. Yet Angel shows a resolve swells, collecting others to stand with her.
Bad Press is an impactful documentary, coming at a time when governments and representatives strip rights and safety from people. It highlights a point lacking in mainstream media nowadays—the importance of the truth. Although certain moments feel manufactured to get a great shot, the movie does not lose steam, and the dangers never lighten. Bad Press is a worthwhile, entertaining, and riveting documentary.
