In what may be the best work of two illustri­ous careers, the ever-innovative Robert Altman joined forces with Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, to create a presidential candi­date, Jack Tanner, and then ran him alongside the other hopefuls in the 1988 US election cam­paign! A playful mockumentary made for the US cable network Home Box Office and never before seen in Australia, Tanner '88 is Altman at his peak, 6 hours of riveting political satire that turns the documentary form inside out - shot on video to resemble nightly TV news reporting.

Altman and Trudeau revel in their smallscreen but large-canvas format, exploring potent issues of political image-making, the co-option of the media and the peculiar operations of the US party machinery all observed with lacerating wit and deadly insight.