The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo

The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo is a fresh and innovative look into the life of radical Chicano lawyer, author, and counterculture icon, Oscar Zeta Acosta, best known for his volatile friendship with legendary journalist and provocateur, Hunter S. Thompson. The author of two groundbreaking autobiographical novels, Acosta's powerful literary voice, brash courtroom style, and notorious revolutionary antics made him a revered figure within the Chicano movement. He offered one of the most brazen, frontal assaults on white supremacy seen at the time. In hindsight, Acosta is known more for his turn as Thompson's bumbling Samoan sidekick in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" than for his own work exposing racial bias, hypocrisy, and repression within the California justice system. Channeling Acosta's own extravagant myth-making, Rodriguez draws upon Acosta's literary work; testimonies of friends, colleagues, and critics; legal transcripts; and other archival materials to weave a tapestry of key moments in the man's life and work. (San Francisco Latino Film Festival)