film synopsis
A prodigiously gifted artist with a radically subversive bent, political cartoonist Mr. Fish has built a career out of pushing the boundaries of acceptability with his hilarious and frequently shocking cartoons lampooning American politics, religion and everything in between. But as Pablo Bryant’s incisive documentary shows, the shrinking field of print media is making things tough for professional cartoonists everywhere, and especially ones as gleefully provocative as Fish.
Providing an intimate portrait of its subject as both an artist and a devoted family man, the film finds him at a crossroads: should he dull the sharp edges of his work in order to appeal to a wider audience and better support his family, or should he hold steadfast to his nonconformist ideals?
A welcome showcase for Fish’s irreverent but deadly serious images, this stirring documentary shines a spotlight on this artist at a moment when his activist spirit has never been more necessary.