'Raise Hell,' Ya'll: New Documentary Celebrates Biting Wit and Wisdom of Political Observer Molly Ivins

Janice Engel's film, opening today, shows how late writer brilliantly skewered stupidity, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness in the political class 

Janice Engel's new documentary on Molly Ivins opens today in New York, Los Angeles and - fittingly - in locations across the writer's native Texas, including Lubbock, Mesquite, Laredo, El Paso, Plano, Houston and the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

Raise Hell; The Life and Times of Molly Ivins also opens in Austin, the state capital where Ivins first made a name for herself covering the Texas legislature. With a healthy disrespect for authority, she pulled no punches writing about the state's political leaders, including governor and future president George W. Bush.

"Texas has always been the national laboratory for bad government," she observes at one point in the film, an example of her capacity for the pithy phrase that's humorous but adheres in the mind for its truthfulness.

I interviewed Engel at Sundance, where Raise Hell premiered in January (see below for that article). I spoke with her again, this time on camera in Los Angeles, on the eve of the documentary's theatrical release. Watch here:

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Related: 
>Raise Hell director Janice Engel on writer/journalist Molly Ivins: 'The whole idea of objectivity really rubbed her the wrong way'
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>Director Janice Engel on sealed box that could reveal Molly Ivins secrets... in 75 years

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