EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. digital, educational, and home video distribution rights to Robinson Devor’s award-winning documentary Suburban Fury, an absorbing examination of the mind and motivation of would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore.
Submarine Entertainment negotiated the deal with Kino Lorber. Cargo Film & Releasing will handle international sales of the documentary, winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Seattle Film Festival and a double nominee for the IDA Documentary Awards.
Argot Pictures is squiring the U.S. theatrical release of Suburban Fury, which New Yorker critic Richard Brody called “a paranoid masterpiece… To the list of great documentaries rooted in interviews of a single person add Robinson Devor’s Suburban Fury.”
That single person, Sara Jane Moore, fired two shots at Pres. Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975, as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The filmmaker spoke with Moore at great length when she was in her 80s, after her release from serving 32 years behind bars for the assassination attempt. She insisted on being the only person the Devor interviewed for his project.
The exchanges between Moore and Devor could be quite combative, giving insight into the tenacity with which she held her opinions.
“She yelled at me more than once off camera and on,” Devor told Deadline in an interview for our Doc Talk podcast recorded at SFFILM’s Doc Stories festival. “But you’ve got to go through that a little bit if you want to get an interview like that.”
In a statement, Karolina Dwyer, VP of Acquisitions for Kino Lorber, said, “We are proud to join as distribution partners for Suburban Fury, a riveting true crime story that masterfully unpacks obsession, ideology, and radicalization. Robinson Devor has crafted a compelling documentary that will deeply resonate with audiences and prompt conversations beyond the screen.”
Cargo Films President David Piperni commented, “It’s rare to see a film whose subject is such a perfect distillation of her times and how for some, it can lead to a very scary place. Part historical record, part compelling character study, it adds up to a gripping tale that feels very much of the moment.”
Suburban Fury explores how Moore morphed from a conservative housewife to a radical intent on laying the groundwork for an uprising in America by eliminating the president. The strange tale involved Moore’s fascination with heiress Patty Hearst, who had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and while being held by the group herself became radicalized. At one point, Moore volunteered for People in Need, a charity set up by Patty Hearst’s father as part of ransom demands by the SLA.
Moore also worked as an FBI informant and, before the assassination attempt, had been investigated by the Secret Service which concluded she didn’t constitute a threat.
In his interview with Deadline, Devor recalled his interactions with Moore.
“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. 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.”
I put the film on my list of the 10 best documentaries of 2025.
Suburban Fury premiered at the 2024 New York Film Festival and went on to screen at DOC NYC, SFFILM’s Doc Stories, the Bentonville Film Festival, and the Sonoma International Film Festival, among others. The documentary is produced by Devor, Jason Reid and Zachariah Sebastian for Vertigo Films, in association with The Godmother, D.D. Wigley’s production company, with a start-up grant from SFFILM.
Moore died on Sept. 24, 2025, at the age of 95, just days shy of the 50th anniversary of her attempt to kill Pres. Ford.
English (US) ·