BH Interview: Filmmaker Mike McNulty on Giving Voters the Fast and Furious Facts
by Christian Toto
posted by Jim Bryan
The filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated documentary “Waco: The Rules of Engagement” is gearing up to shed light on Operation: Fast and Furious.
Colo.-based Michael McNulty has been watching the media give scant attention to the scandal, one which involves U.S. letting arms cross into Mexico as part of an anti-gunning running probe and has GOP officials scrambling to get Attorney General Eric Holder to reveal all the information behind the matter.
Now, McNulty has had enough.
The filmmaker, who won an Emmy for his “Waco” documentary, is back behind the camera because, as he puts it, the press has failed to do its job.
“I’ve sat and watched this mess percolate for the better part of the year,” McNulty tells Big Hollywood. And while camera men and reporters alike might want to tackle a story involving drugs, automatic weapons, murder and mayhem, the press hasn’t grabbed hold of the story like other political scandals.
“On the grunt level, the guy behind the camera … you find a genuine enthusiasm for the story and pursuing it,” he says. “It’s the assignment editor who starts the ball rolling. It ain’t happening at that level. I suspect the marching orders the assignment editors get is, ‘leave it alone.’”
McNulty won’t. And he has faith he can wrap "Blood on their Hands" in time for the November elections. Perhaps even earlier.
“We think that having such an important issue that’s been in the news somewhere brought forth with some factual truth being presented is important,” he says. “This is not a Democratic or Republican political issue. It’s a moral issue about right and wrong. If this had been a Republican Attorney General I’d take the same approach I’m taking now. It’s about people being killed under the aegis of our government in another country.”
McNulty served time in the Vietnam War as a photographer, and he’s seen some of the atrocities of war. But that often pales to the actions of the Mexican drug cartels.
“There is a horror show going on in that country that’s unrivaled anywhere,” he says.
McNulty’s team is using Kickstarter.com to help defray costs, and the site’s strict guidelines won’t allow photographs even hinting at the killings being done by the cartels.
Even critics of the Fast and Furious program aren’t on the same page regarding its original purpose. McNulty thinks he has the answer.
“When somebody at the top of the food chain lies, what do the folks below him do?” he asks. “The lie was, and still is, … that 90 percent of the firearms traced by the ATF come from an American gun shop. I think I know of one gun shop in Colorado, maybe two, that can sell you a machine gun. The weapon of choice of the cartel is not semi-automatic but fully automatic weapons.”
But where are the weapons coming from? McNulty’s film hopes to find some answers.
McNulty's latest project does have a connection to his Oscar-nominated Waco documentary. During the Waco scandal, then-Attorney General appointed a deputy to help sort out the truth - Eric Holder.
"Eric’s been busy in the cover up business for 20 years. We sorta know how he operates," he says.
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