APPLETON, Wis. — A new documentary delving into the life of Sara Jane Moore, the suburban housewife who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, is set for an Oscar-qualifying release this December, followed by a national theatrical rollout in 2026. Directed by Robinson Devor, Suburban Fury has already garnered acclaim, including the top documentary prize at the Seattle International Film Festival, and will screen at New York City's Alamo Drafthouse in Lower Manhattan from December 12 to 18.
Argot Pictures, the distributor behind the project, announced the plan in a recent statement, highlighting the film's timely exploration of radicalization and ideological divides in America. Founded by Jim Browne in 2005, Argot has a track record of handling notable documentaries, such as Marshall Curry’s Academy Award-nominated Street Fight, which chronicled Cory Booker's early political campaign in Newark, New Jersey, and Stacy Peralta’s Crips and Bloods: Made in America.
“I’ve been a great admirer of Robinson Devor’s work for a long time now,” Browne said in the statement, “and excited to work with him and the team on his extraordinary film, Suburban Fury.”
The film centers on Moore, who on September 22, 1975, fired a shot from a .38 caliber revolver at Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The bullet missed the president, and before she could fire again, Oliver Sipple, a former Marine in the crowd, intervened and subdued her. Moore, then 45, was later convicted and served 32 years in prison before her release in 2007.
Devor's documentary provides an intimate portrait, framed around unprecedented access to Moore herself, who died on September 24, 2024, at the age of 95—just days before the 50th anniversary of her assassination attempt. Shot across Bay Area locations tied to her radicalization, the film unfolds as a first-person monologue, blending rare archival footage with stylized imagined exchanges between Moore and her FBI handler.
According to a release from Argot Pictures, “More than a historical retelling, the film is an intimate character study — and a chilling mirror of America’s ideological divide.” It traces Moore's transformation from a patriotic volunteer and government informant to a disillusioned revolutionary, influenced by events involving Patty Hearst, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Secret Service, and the FBI.
The release further describes the narrative: “Framed around unprecedented access to Moore herself, it unfolds as a first-person monologue shot across the Bay Area sites where her radicalization took root. Blending rare archival footage with a stylized imagined exchange between Moore and her FBI handler, Suburban Fury traces her transformation from patriotic volunteer and government informant to disillusioned revolutionary with a gun in her hand.”
In an interview with Deadline, Devor shared insights into his interactions with Moore, whom he interviewed when she was 94. “She yelled at me more than once off camera and on,” Devor said. “But you’ve got to go through that a little bit if you want to get an interview like that.”
He described her as “a very vibrant, smart person, and I think that she’s a natural storyteller and a raconteur.” Devor added, “She loves telling a good story, and she was trained, I guess a little while as an actress. So, she’s able to perform very well… I think she really understands how to control a conversation. I really think she has spent time with politicians understanding that you can give an answer and you can be telling the truth, but if you’re a few millimeters off the question, you’re not lying.”
The documentary also contextualizes the turbulent 1970s, a period marked by hijackings, bombings, and audacious acts of disruption. Devor noted in the interview, “When you’re watching on the television and you’re seeing the individual hijacking jumbo jets, the individuals taking over an Olympic Games, or a few individuals that have this crazy audacity that they can actually get away with — because you really couldn’t quite get away with stuff like that today.” He continued, “It just seemed like [the times were] saying to people that, ‘Hey, if you’ve got a crazy way to upend the system, go for it.’ There was just so many people doing crazy things in that time period -bombings hijackings.”
Moore's story underscores how ordinary citizens can veer into extremism. Law enforcement had interviewed her prior to the attempt but deemed her no serious threat, a misjudgment highlighted in the film. The release emphasizes, “Fifty years later, Moore’s story feels eerily prescient — a reflection of how ordinary citizens can be swept into extremism, conspiracy, and rage. Suburban Fury doesn’t offer easy answers; instead, it immerses us in one woman’s unraveling and the country that mirrored her fracture.”
“She is a very vibrant, smart person, and I think that she’s a natural storyteller and a raconteur,” Devor told us. “She loves telling a good story, and she was trained, I guess a little while as an actress. So, she’s able to perform very well… I think she really understands how to control a conversation.”
The film premiered at the New York Film Festival in 2023 and has since screened at festivals including SFFILM’s Doc Stories in San Francisco, as well as events in Philadelphia, Seattle, Sonoma, California, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas. It is scheduled to screen at DOC NYC on November 18, 2024.
Beyond theaters, the distribution plan includes showings at museums nationwide in 2026, aiming to broaden its reach. This comes amid a wave of interest in historical documentaries that reflect contemporary issues, such as ideological polarization and political violence.
As America grapples with its own fractures 50 years after Moore's act, Suburban Fury serves as a reminder of the era's volatility. With Moore's recent passing, the film stands as a final testament to her complex legacy, capturing her voice in combative yet revealing exchanges. Looking ahead, its Oscar-qualifying run could position it for awards contention, potentially drawing more attention to this overlooked chapter of U.S. history.