Friends of the LBJ Library | Mar, 25 2025 6:30PM - 8:00PM
Join us on March 25th to preview excerpts from a new documentary film, A Savage Art, about award-winning political cartoonist Pat Oliphant. After the preview, we will feature a conversation with the filmmaker, Bill Banowsky, and political cartoonists Rob Rogers and Adam Zyglis, both of whom appear in the film. Karina Kling will moderate the conversation.
The preview and discussion will be co-hosted by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and held in the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium at the LBJ Presidential Library. Friends of the LBJ Library members at the Individual level and above are invited to attend and must register in advance.
About the Film:
A Savage Art features the life and work of political cartoonist Patrick Oliphant, whose storied career spanned five decades and ten U.S. presidents. The film is told in interviews with Pat, his family, friends and colleagues, archival footage, and hundreds of his cartoons. It also briefly outlines the history of political cartoons, showing how important and impactful political cartoonists have been throughout the ages, and how in our current climate of political partisanship and corporate control of the media, political cartoonists, like Oliphant, are critical to checking the powers that be. The documentary will make its theatrical debut later this year.
About the Speakers:
Bill Banowsky has been involved in the film business for almost three decades, as an exhibitor, distributor, and producer. In 2001 Banowsky co-founded Magnolia Pictures, a distributor of independent, foreign language and documentary films, and in 2011 he created Violet Crown Cinema. Banowsky was an Executive Producer of Alex Gibney’s 2010 film about Jack Abramoff, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and the producer of Starving the Beast, a documentary about the systemic defunding of public higher education that premiered at SXSW in 2016. A Savage Art is Bill’s directorial debut.
Bill and his wife Susan lived and worked in Austin for almost 30 years, and relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2020. Bill’s recent business start-ups include a craft brewery called Nuckolls Brewing Co. and a tourist railroad called Sky Railway.
Rob Rogers is an award-winning, nationally-syndicated editorial cartoonist. Rogers’ work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, and The Week, among others. Rogers’ work has received many accolades including the 2019 and 2024 Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartooning and the Herblock Prize in 2021. He was named a 2019 Emerson Fellow by the Emerson Collective and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and 2019. In June of 2018, after 25 years on staff at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rogers was fired for drawing cartoons critical of President Trump. In his most recent book, Enemy of the People: A Cartoonist’s Journey, Rogers talks about the importance of satire in today’s political climate.
Adam Zyglis is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo News. His cartoons are internationally syndicated and have appeared in publications around the world, including The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. In his spare time, he has done freelance work in book illustration and storyboarding. His work has also appeared in magazines such as The Week, Time, and MAD Magazine. In 2013 he won the Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award, given by the National Press Foundation. In 2007, 2011, and 2015 he won a National Headliner Award, sponsored by the Atlantic City Press Club. Additionally, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2015.
Karina Kling is Director of Communications for HillCo Partners, developing communications and media relations strategies, messaging, and digital content to support clients’ legislative and public affairs goals. She doubles as a journalism professor at Austin Community College. Kling covered Texas politics for nearly two decades as an award-winning journalist for Spectrum News. In 2011, she helped launch Texas’ only nightly political news program, “Capital Tonight,” as its lead reporter and went on to become its host and managing editor in 2015.
Location and Parking: The LBJ Auditorium is located on the lower level of the LBJ complex at 2313 Red River St. Access to the auditorium will be through the lobby of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Parking details will be shared with registered attendees.
To RSVP: Registration is now closed.
