The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer (1996)

In 1994, Maggie Lauterer, a popular TV personality, the “Charles Kuralt” of Asheville, decided to run for Congress in her home district in western North Carolina. With full access to her campaign, “The Political Education of Maggie Lauterer” tells the behind the scenes journey of a charismatic mountain music singer who runs for office without any political experience in a fiercely contested campaign – and what she learns in the process. 

This classic cinema verité campaign story was the last hour and a half of our 1996 Peabody, Emmy, and duPont-Columbia Journalism Award winning series "Vote for Me: Politics in America,” described as “pure Americana, merry and marvelous and authentic” by USA Today, “the best four credit course on real politics you could ever take” by Roll Call, and, by the Atlanta Constitution as “a masterpiece, unmatched by anything you’ll see this political season in the breadth and depth with which it makes you laugh, makes you enraged and — most remarkable of all — makes you care about politics."

Produced & Directed by Louis Alvarez, Andy Kolker and Paul Stekler

Cinematography by Stephen McCarthy Edited by Kenneth Lewis & Peter Odabashian

Funding from the CIT Group, The Ford Foundation,  the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The John D.  and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and PBS