Booth Gardner documentary basks in Oscars spotlight

When a glamorous presenter at tonight's Academy Awards ceremony reads the nominees in the short-documentary category, Washingtonians will hear a familiar name: former governor Booth Gardner, subject of the film "The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner."

Directed by Daniel Junge, the film is a 38-minute documentary that follows Gardner's fight to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Washington state — a very personal battle for Gardner, who suffers from Parkinson's disease. It was filmed mostly in Seattle and Tacoma over six months in 2008, focusing on the campaign for Initiative 1000. Described by supporters as the "Death with Dignity Act," it was approved by voters in the November 2008 election.

Junge, a Denver-based documentary filmmaker whose award-winning film "They Killed Sister Dorothy" (about the murder of an environmental activist) screened at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2008, said he was drawn to Gardner after reading about his story in the national media. "It's a great way to capsulize a really big, contentious issue," he said, "to have a story like Booth's at the center."

Junge and his crew embedded themselves in the campaigns both for and against I-1000, incorporating many points of view, including local activists Duane French of the Washington chapter of Not Dead Yet, Eileen Geller of the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, and Sister Sharon Park of the Washington State Catholic Conference.

"Although I think that the balance of the film is in Booth's favor ... I do think that we're trying to humanize all the different aspects of the story," Junge said. "I think there are cogent arguments from each of the subjects in this film. The last thing we wanted to do was make a polemic, and that became quite easy when we met the people involved — they're all very compassionate."

The film, said Junge, is not just a political documentary, but a portrait of a man's personal life during a stressful time. "It was difficult to watch the deterioration in Booth's health," said Junge of the former governor, who lives in Tacoma. "It's a testament to his courage that he followed through so fervently on this issue and allowed us to continue to film while his health was deteriorating."

Gardner is in Los Angeles to attend the Oscars in support of the film. "It was touch and go," Junge said of Gardner's attendance. "I think he deliberated over it because traveling isn't easy for him now, but we were elated to hear that he's going to be there."

After the Oscars, co-producer Andy Schocken (a Western Washington native) will present clips from the film at the Seattle Jewish Film festival, and Junge hopes the local premiere of the entire film will be at the Seattle International Film Festival in the spring. "The Last Campaign" will be broadcast on HBO, though no date is set yet.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com