Henry Fonda for President

(Alexander Horwath, Austria/Germany 2024, 184 min., DCP, German and English with English subtitles)

It’s too late to elect Henry Fonda president - he died in 1982. But in Alexander Horwath’s new documentary essay, and in a land where actors can become presidents, we can imagine an America led by Fonda, reflecting his ancestors’ immigration to North America and his own work ethic, as represented by the films he made. Horwath uses Fonda’s films to track the history of this country, from the central New York town where his forefathers settled and that bears his name, through multiple wars into the twentieth century, where new national and global concerns took precedence. A personal fascination with American history, American cinema, and Henry Fonda spurred Horwath to create this epic document that weaves all three together in a fascinating self-reflexive structure.