Eye opening - watch this before we get too much further into the election cycle.

Well, another shortlisted film bites the dust. A documentary like a million I've seen before. I'm almost always a fan of documentaries but this one just didn't do it for me. I found some interesting information from this and it did open my eyes to an unfortunate way some things work in politics. This is really one of those films with a very limited target audience (though to be fair most documentaries are lol). I'd definitely be interested to hear anyone else's opinion on this one.

Far too complicated for me to understand these days

PBS POV 10/2/18 SCARY

Very well researched expose' of what is causing a lot of the turmoil in current politics. We are being played by big money trying to take the power of the people and turning all of us against one another rather than them. I recommend it for everyone who wants to understand what is really happening in "the swamp!"

The KEY takeaway - never TRUST political hit pieces in the last six weeks of an election. It's usually from an unidentified source with an agenda. I agree there is Dark Money in politics, and it exists in both parties. I wish the movie showed examples in both parties, to have a fair, open airing of this issue. I found the Federal Election Commission complaint that the Republicans we're voting in a block laughable, because the Democrats were doing the same. Voters deserve to have a quiet enjoyment of electing their state and federal representatives without billionaires, unions, corporations, activists groups and the like interfering with local voters choosing their preferred representation.

well done and very meaningful to the wellbeing of our democracy. should be a must watch for everyone.

Excellent portrayal of how nationwide corruption works in the USA. The two important techniques: 1) corporate personhood and 2) equating briberary with "free speech". US Supreme Court enabled these methods with the "Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission". Movie shows us exactly how the new legalized bribery works.

A chilling documentary, I was perhaps most struck by the fact that it focuses almost entirely on Republican candidates being undermined by dark money. This is NOT a partisan issue but one that affects all of us. Interestingly the film focuses on Montana state representative races as a microcosm of what is going on at a national level. Montana had long prided itself on having the strictest campaign finance laws in the country which assured that they got populist "citizen-legislators." However, federal laws and court decisions have undermined the states laws and allowed anonymous corporate and other big money donors to literally pick candidates for state races there. The film also showcases the desperate need for serious investigative journalism in this era, and how hard it is to actually be a journalist these days.

This movie follows the struggles of state Republican and Democratic Montana politicians being under siege by dark money campaigns done by faceless 501c4s funded by unknown corporate entities, a investigative journalist, and a corruption trial, showing a microcosm for what is happening nationally in America. If you don’t have a clue about campaign financing, this documentary shows these issues grippingly and chillingly. An eye-opener and excellent filmmaking.

More a political opinion piece that a nonpartisan documentary, it makes the point that you don't always know who is funding candidates. Which is fair if you are willing to admit it is done by Bloomberg and Soros as well as Koch, teachers' unions and the NRA. Unfortunately the director and the film's producers (ironically no full disclosure of their political motives for funding this) take a one sided approach that may endear them to the left but sheds as much shade as light on the topic of dark money

WHEREVER YOU ARE ON THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM, IF YOU CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY, YOU MUST SEE THIS POWERFUL, GRIPPING FILM ... AND VOTE FOR CANDIDATES WHO AREN'T BOUGHT & PAID FOR BY DARK MONEY!

It's nice to have a political film be bi-partisan. 'Dark Money', a PBS documentary from Kimberly Reed, a Montana native, is one of the few that takes a balanced approach on a subject and tells all sides. This is about Montana's quest to be corruption free and how they attempted to make financial contributions to politicians and judges transparent. The state has been one of the most progressive in campaign finance reform, but the United States Supreme Court decision Citizens United changed that. One would imagine it's a state's rights issue, but it turns out the Supreme Court said, in a separate ruling, Montana couldn't reduce corruption the way they had in the past. The more you get into the worm hole that Reed takes you down the more slimy you feel. Our Democracy was losing steam with every dollar that poured into Montana from untraceable dark money groups who were mostly, if not all, outside of Montana. The state politicians fought back, but many of the Republicans up for reelection were facing primary challengers with the big money backing. Why is Montana so important? Reed explains every detail in a nuanced but thorough way. Even if you're familiar on the subject you're bound to learn something. This isn't one of those fear mongering or conspiracy theory docs, but rather one that brings facts and a lot of them. It's powerful, it's important, and it's not always easy to hear, but it's necessary if you want free and fair elections that aren't corrupted by big money corporations looking for a strangle hold on our government. Final Score: 10/10