The politician who made California weird—and then made it work.
Governor Jerry Brown has had a storied political life, and Marina Zenovich’s tremendous portrait of him captures the highs and lows, augmented by present-day interviews with her protagonist. Ahead of his time in many ways, especially as an environmentalist, he is the longest-serving governor in the history of California, who eliminated the state’s billion-dollar deficit and enacted historic environmental and criminal justice reforms. From his early days in San Francisco as the son of Governor Pat Brown to his current work around climate change and nuclear threats, Zenovich’s timely film proposes a hopeful alternative to the current political morass.
Direction
Zenovich's patient, intimate access across decades of footage.
Writing
Brown's own words—dry, philosophical, unexpectedly poetic.
Director
Marina Zenovich
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Brown dated Linda Ronstadt in the '70s and studied Zen Buddhism in Japan—both referenced as political liabilities at the time.
The 'Governor Moonbeam' nickname came from a 1976 Rolling Stone hit piece; Brown reclaimed it as anti-establishment branding decades before ironic detachment became default.
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