Crawford up close

Ever wonder if Crawford, Texas, is really as dusty as it sounds? Ever wonder how the locals felt over eight years about suddenly becoming a presidential retreat, witnessing a national media invasion and surviving a summer of war protests?

Well your time has come.

After three years of filmmaking, director David Modigliani has unleashed his feature-length film, "Crawford," online. Scheduled to play at 34 film festivals this year, the movie is drawing awards and rave reviews for its suggestion that the town is not always its image. Said reviewer Ray Young:

Crawford is a smart and absorbing documentary about the changes within the small Texas town George W. Bush moved to while running for President in 2000. No one since Richard Nixon has divided the American people as sharply, and Bush extended his bulldozing effect to neighbors he never knew in a remote corner far beyond his station. Director David Modigliani, here making his feature debut, captures roughly six years’ worth of the heat and heartbreak in Crawford in the president’s chaotic wake.

You can watch the movie on hulu.com, an online video service. Or, you can take a peek at the trailer here.

-- Johanna Neuman