Democracy Under Siege: Film Screening and Conversation

“Political cartoons were born with democracy. And they are challenged when freedom is.”— Patrick Chappatte, 2019

Join the Andrea Michell Center and Public Trust for Democracy Under Siege, a film screening and conversation on Tuesday, October 28, 2026 from 5:30-7:30pm, about the power of political cartoons and the state of American democracy. The screening will be followed by a hybrid conversation with director Laura Nix and Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, moderated by scholars Jeff Green and Aaron Levy. Sponsored by Women Make Movies.

About the Program

Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Nix, Democracy Under Siege features the sharp, darkly funny work of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Ann Telnaes, formerly of the Washington Post. From her bird’s-eye view in the catbird seat of the nation’s capital, Telnaes offers a razor-sharp critique of political hypocrisy, as top political commentators lay bare the complex history and challenges of the world’s most influential political system.

Made on the eve of the 2024 election, the film trains its lens on one of the most extreme and vital moments in American democracy’s nearly 250 years of existence, tracing some of today’s urgent crises — including constitutional logjams, executive overreach, judicial ethics, a media environment saturated with disinformation, and a renewed backlash against multiracial democracy — to their roots in American history.

As the country grapples with fundamental challenges that transcend individual presidencies, the film asks a question that has only grown more urgent: can the nation preserve its democratic ideals amidst severe polarization, or will it fall prey to an authoritarian takeover?

Democracy Under Siege is the sixth and final film in the award-winning Draw for Change series, which pairs women filmmakers with women cartoonists working under censorship and repressive governments around the world.

About the Speakers

Laura Nix is a US director, writer, and producer working in non-fiction and fiction. Her short film, Walk Run Cha-Cha, was nominated for a 2020 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, as well as a News and Documentary Emmy. Her feature documentary Inventing Tomorrow, won a 2019 Peabody Award and numerous festival awards. Recently, Laura was a Writer and Executive Producer on the feature documentary Delikado, which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary. She also directed the feature documentaries The Yes Men Are Revolting, The Light in Her Eyesand Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig, as well as the award-winning fiction feature The Politics of Fur.

Nix is a film expert for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase, leading workshops in documentary storytelling worldwide, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch.

Ann Telnaes creates editorial cartoons in various mediums — animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She has won the Pulitzer Prize twice for her editorial cartoons in 2001 and 2025. Ann was awarded the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2016 and the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023. After working for The Washington Post for over sixteen years, Telnaes resigned after a cartoon she submitted was rejected because it criticized billionaire tech and media executives, including Jeff Bezos, for trying to curry favor with President Trump.

Telnaes’ print work was shown in a solo exhibition at the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in 2004. Her most recent book, Trump’s ABC, was published by Fantagraphics in 2018. Telnaes is a past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC).