Steve Bannon once oversaw the distribution of LGBT films, a pro-John Kerry documentary

(Image credit: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)

published 22 November 2016

Steve Bannon has swiftly made his way from being the executive chairman of Breitbart News to the chief executive officer of the Donald Trump campaign to the future chief strategist and senior counselor in Trump's White House. That most recent appointment has made some critics bristle — "[Bannon is] anti-Semitic; he's anti-black; and he's anti-women," Howard Dean recently railed, although he has hardly been the first to level such accusations.

But oddly enough, Bannon has a past that might make his most ardent supporters and critics a little confused:

Ten years ago, Bannon oversaw the distribution of independent films released by Wellspring Media, a company that supported a wide range of international cinema as well as gay-themed and other "transgressive" titles. Movies acquired and released under his tenure include the experimental LGBT documentary Tarnation and Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, a pro-Kerry documentary that opened during the 2004 election. According to one insider who dealt with Bannon at this time, he directly approved and often supported several of these films with great enthusiasm. [Indiewire]

Wellspring wasn't Bannon's only foray into the film industry — Bannon also once aspired to take Shakespeare's Coriolanus and "make a rap film out of it set in South Central during the [1992] L.A. riots." And sure enough, by 2004 Bannon was directing films himself — although with titles like In the Face of Evil: Reagan’s War in Word and Deed, they aren't so surprising when looking at where his career ended up.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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