Praise for Duane Baughman & Johnny O’Hara's BHUTTO
" Fascinating!" -Andrew Schenker, Time Out NY
"Stirring. Contextualizing the prime minister's rise to power within a larger portrait of a nation under constant internal and external siege, 'Bhutto' conveys a forceful sense of tectonic social and geopolitical shifts, as well as the courageous, heartbreaking personal sacrifices its subject made in service to both her homeland and ideals."
-Nick Schager, Village Voice
"Thorough and involving! A crash course in the ultra-turbulent history of Pakistan…makes fiction pale by comparison." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Incisive, well-researched and ultimately moving." - Brandon Harris, Filmmaker Magazine
"Effective as an elegy and as a crash course in the knotted politics of Pakistan."
- Damon Smith, Indiwire Reverse Shot
"A spellbinding portrait that moves with the speed, intensity and suspense of a psychological thriller. A riveting masterpiece." -Amy Handler, Moving Pictures Magazine
"The life story of this groundbreaking Middle Eastern politician - the first and, so far, only woman to be elected prime minister of Pakistan - was so eventful and nerve-wracking that only a documentary could handle the job. And Duane Baughman's Bhutto is so well researched, with such complete access to Bhutto's inner circle, that it's the only Bhutto movie you'll ever need."- East Bay Express
"Consistently interesting and challenging, the film proves an education of sorts... You come away from it with renewed respect for Benazir and her bunch - and with a deepening sense of tragedy regarding the future of Pakistan."
-James van Maanen, Trust Movies
"Fast-paced and intelligent!" - Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader
"A worthy portrait of a phenomenal woman. Thorough...exciting!" - John Anderson, Variety
"Breathes life and heart into a history little known in the west." - Sean P. Means, Salt Lake Tribune
"An epic!" - Brian D. Johnson, Macleans
"A biographical documentary…with the pace of a Cold War conspiracy thriller."
- P. L. Kerpius, Time-Out Chicago
"Enthralling." - Justin Go, National Post
"A fine, scrupulously researched historical intro to one of the world’s largest countries and a potential powder keg." - Liz Braun, Canoe
" Bhutto begins with the pace of a Cold War conspiracy thriller. The urgent thumping of a Mader score and a barrage of motion graphics and statistical pop-ups give it the feel of an Oliver Stone epic, but it's much less slippery historically. All of this information is relevant background material aimed at a generally underinformed Western audience. The movie soon turns on a dime into a deeply moving familial and political history of the first female prime minister of a Muslim nation.
Marvelous footage shows the stunningly large crowds that greet her. The film echoes that admiration in its aim to lift the veil on the shrouded workings of the Pakistani government, whose then-prevailing powers apparently denied her security measures that might have prevented her death. Bhutto employs an impressive compilation of material - from grainy newsreel footage of Bhutto's father, the former prime minister, whose death at the hands of opposition leaders inspired her activism, to pixilated 1980s video playback of her television addresses to CNN breaking-news feeds reporting her assassination.
The sensationalized tone of the film's opening is mitigated by tender, substantive commentary from interviews with critics as polarized as Condoleezza Rice and Arianna Huffington, and a throng of experts and journalists is on hand to describe Bhutto and Pakistan's political complexities." -P.L. Kerpius, Time Out Chicago
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