Quotes from Viewers & Reviewers

One of The Top 10 from the Newport Beach Film Festival... The story is told by his granddaughter and filmmaker Sascha Rice. Her intimate and thought-provoking documentary was both educational and fascinating to watch.

—  Tiffany Carter

Newport Beach Patch

Rice's use of archival footage has been integrated with immense skill, conveying the feeling at times that Rice is communicating with the governor directly... The editing also deserves singling out for its masterful specificity.

—  Elliot Kotek

Moving Pictures Network

There's an oft-repeated theme that the era, not the man, produced Brown's achievements. California still was in a postwar boom. Environmental protection wasn't on the radar. The population was half the current size. Land was cheap. Nonsense. To get anything done in government — then or today — requires a leader. Pat Brown filled the bill. For a California political junkie, it's four stars.

—  George Skelton

LA Times

Really terrific. It is intelligent and emotional. It reminds us all that there was a time when this country had real leaders with principles.

—  Tom Rosenberg

Academy Award®-winning Producer,
Million Dollar Baby

This is a brilliant, engaging film about a natural politician who was both a happy warrior and a great visionary. More than any other person, Pat Brown made California the Golden State in reality as well as name. The film captures that time and his courage. It moved me, made me laugh, at times tear up, and it made me remember the extraordinary years when California's greatest governor changed the state forever.

—  Robert Shrum

Senior Fellow NYU, Political Consultant

I was inspired and moved… A reminder of how we must keep optimism alive in these challenging times.

—  Sherry Lansing

Chairman of UC Regents,
former CEO of Paramount Pictures

In these startling new times, we need all the insight we can get. Definitely a film to watch.

—  SFLuxe.com

In a time when the smart money has written off the state, this excellent and timely documentary recalls the prosperous past and gives us a bit of hope for the problems confronting the late governor's son, Jerry Brown.

—  Bill Boyarsky

LA Observed

While we marvel at Pat Brown's impact on California, we are reminded of how much of his great legacy is threatened today. This documentary, personal yet clear-eyed, is one that every Californian should see.

—  Jessica Yu

Academy Award®-winning Filmmaker

Rice goes on to lay out the bumps Brown faced along the way with student demonstrators, entrenched legislators and the untested-but-ultimately gifted politician who would succeed him. Because of what she knows herself and her access to family, the viewer ultimately knows more about how her subject and those closest to him felt about the big political wins and losses... It's no wonder those on opposite ends of the political spectrum like Schwarzennegger and former Assembly speaker Karen Bass look back at that times in state politics with nostalgia. Hopefully another Brown will bring them back some day (and soon).

—  Matt Coker

OC Weekly

It is a daunting task indeed to try and encapsulate the life and career of somebody like Edmund G. "Pat" Brown... Brown's time in office was marked by an explosion in the state's population, a massive aqueduct public works project, a revolutionary education master plan enabling thousands of students the chance to go to college, and changing dynamics within civil rights and social movements...

"For filmmaker Sascha Rice, the documentary meant that not only would she be making a film about one of the most influential people in California's political history, but she would also be telling the life story of her grandfather. As his story unfolds, Rice — and the audience — gains a deeper understanding of the complexities of being Pat Brown, and what it means to a family that is often referred to as the West Coast Kennedys.

—  C.J. Perry

FilmSlate

There were the Kennedys and the Bushs but also the Browns. The documentary takes a unique plunge into to the heart of this West Coast political dynasty. Sascha Rice, granddaughter of ex-Governor Pat Brown and niece of the present Governor Jerry, puts in perspective California in the '50s and '60s then in the full on process of change, and the California of today hit head on by the financial crisis.

—  Oriane Flechaire

Le Ben Franklin Post (France USA media)

The Pat Brown story is an American dream story of humble beginnings with an incredible life's journey.

—  Sabina Dana Plasse

Idaho Mountain Express