The 2026 Fall Democracy Summit brought together students, faculty, community members and more from around the state for two days of conversation and engagement of democracy and civic participation.
The summit closed Oct. 27 with a screening of the award-winning documentary, “Steal This Story, Please!,“ a film that covers three decades of the life and career of American investigative journalist Amy Goodman.
Goodman is the co-founder of the independent daily global news program “Democracy Now!,” a production that airs on more than 1,500 public TV and radio stations around the world, including Fort Collins Public Media and PBS 12 Colorado — formerly Colorado Public Television.
The documentary was produced by award-winning filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, who in 2007 co-founded the production company Elsewhere Films to create documentaries of “cultural relevance, social purpose and artistic integrity, and to strategically distribute these films to maximize their social and community impact,” according to the company’s website. The screening was hosted in partnership with ACT Human Rights Film Festival, and both Lessin and Goodman were present for the screening and the postfilm Q&A.
Before the film began, Lessin highlighted the relevance of the film in today’s political landscape, with the film discussing power dynamics, war, corporate influence and the role of the press amid increasing media consolidation of major media and entertainment companies.
“When Carl Deal, my co-director and co-producer and I began to make this film, we had no idea how relevant it would be to this moment,” Lessin said. “We just had long admired Amy Goodman, and we felt that it was about time that someone made a film about her. Long before the attacks on the press became a defining feature of our political life, Amy Goodman understood that democracy depends on a free press (and) on those willing to confront power, to amplify marginalized voices and insist that facts matter.”
The pair is known for their work producing several other award-winning films, including “Trouble the Water,” “Citizen Koch” and “The Janes,” all of which have been featured at a number of prominent film festivals around the world. “Steal This Story, Please!” was no exception; the film was released independently in 200 theaters across the U.S., taking home both audience favorite and juried awards across the world.
The film opens at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland, where Goodman chased down President Donald Trump’s former chief climate adviser, Preston Wells Griffith III, for a comment on Trump’s views on climate change.
“It was pure Amy: determined, relentless and not about to take ‘no comment’ for an answer,” the film’s press notes read. “For her, journalism is practically an endurance sport.”
Over the course of its 102-minute run time, audience members learned about Goodman’s progression as a journalist and the global events she tackled throughout her career.
One of the most significant moments of the film featured Goodman’s coverage of Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor. In 1991, Goodman witnessed the massacre of hundreds of peaceful protesters by Indonesian soldiers, during which she and her colleague Allan Nairn were beaten by soldiers with M-16s supplied by the U.S. Her and Nairn’s reporting ultimately led to the U.S. House of Representatives cutting off all military assistance to Indonesia.
The film also delved into Goodman’s coverage and analysis of the 9/11 attacks, Chevron’s role in Nigeria’s oil dictatorship in the late 20th century, the oil pipeline protests at Standing Rock, the Iraq War and corresponding U.S. foreign policy and more, with audience members having the opportunity to follow Goodman throughout her career.
“With access to three decades of studio and field recordings along with Amy’s personal archives, we watched as she and her team transformed a scrappy morning radio show airing on nine community stations into a daily global broadcast reaching millions,” the film’s press notes read. “And along the way, we discovered a side of Amy that viewers almost never see: irreverent, mischievous, sometimes downright silly, with perfect comedic timing.”
After the conclusion of the film, Goodman and Lessin came onstage for a postfilm Q&A with CSU President Amy Parsons, touching on what went into the production of the film and its relevance today.
“That film is a work of art, and I really feel honored that we could have witnessed it here at Colorado State University,” Parsons said. “It was unnerving, it was challenging (and) it was extremely important in this moment.”
When asked how it felt having the cameras turned on her for the documentary, Goodman acknowledged the importance of telling the world about independent media.
“It was not comfortable for me to have cameras focused on me instead of having them focused on the people we talked to,” Goodman said. “But if you had to have this, and this idea of getting out this model of independent media to the world, let it be these two Oscar-nominated stalkers to do that.”
During the Q&A, Lessin also highlighted the significance of showing the documentary at CSU the Democracy Summit as a whole.
“I will say that there are not many campuses that may play this film and that may not invite Amy and myself to have this conversation,” Lessin said. “The fact that you’re even having a democracy forum, I think, is really impressive.”
CSU student Ethan McGuinness, who attended the screening and was one of this year’s democracy fellows with the CSU Straayer Center for Public Service Leadership, agreed with Lessin and said the film served as an example of why journalism plays a crucial role in democracy today.
“Journalists and journalism play such a huge role in holding our politicians accountable and making sure that our systems actually work for the people, and Amy Goodman very clearly is one of those people who is not afraid to literally run for the story and hold our elected people accountable,” McGuinness said. “I think that message that she quite literally portrays every single day is something that every single one of us should remember.”
Reach Claire VanDeventer at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
