A rocky road to and from the bookstores

It rated just a few paragraphs in the inside pages of the New York Times in October 1999: St. Martin’s Press had recalled “Fortunate Son,” the first published unauthorized biography of then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas. Interest in the book, which had risen to the bestseller list on Amazon.com, had been fueled by allegations that Bush had been arrested for cocaine possession in 1992, but the publisher yanked the book when it came to light that the author, J.H. Hatfield, was a convicted felon.

That is the starting point for “Horns and Halos,” a documentary that sheds light on events that followed the initial controversy over the book. A 29-year-old self-described “punk of publishing” named Sander Hicks struggled for more than a year and a half to get the book back into stores and the national consciousness.

The problems were not so much political as financial and legal, and concerned the difficulties a small underground imprint called Soft Skull Press faced in persuading distributors and stores to carry a stigmatized book. Directors Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, who are married, emphasize that the movie is not about President Bush.

“Bush is not one of our characters,” Hawley said. “It could be anyone who has some power. And we are not journalists, so we weren’t attempting to dig into that area. We are filmmakers and we are interested in how humans relate to the media and how the media affects people’s lives -- particularly smaller people.”

The filmmakers said the documentary is packed with surprises, including the revelation of the sources for the book’s cocaine allegations.

Under a deal they struck with HBO, Galinsky said the filmmakers are allowed to distribute the movie theatrically in 12 cities before HBO airs it on television, which will allow it to qualify for Oscar consideration in the documentary feature category. The film, which already been shown in New York, Washington, Boston and Austin, will open Friday at the Laemmle Fairfax in Los Angeles.

“We had to basically prove to L.A. theaters that we could [distribute] this properly,” Galinsky said. “They largely care about box office and reviews. We did fairly well in New York and other cities, but when I first called theaters in L.A. they said, ‘Let’s see how it does in New York first.’ ”

“If we get enough people out the first weekend, we could run to the next election,” quipped Galinsky.