Before her Presidential nomination, Victoria Woodhull (Christina Leidel) was the first woman to address Congress, the first female stockbroker, and the first woman to start her own publishing company. Guiding her along her prophetic journey to the White House is the visage of the Greek statesman Demosthenes (Travis West), giving her the encouragement only an ancient philosopher could provide. On the night that Woodhull is to accept the nomination for President of the United States, she is confronted by the crowd on her platform of “free love.” Woodhull takes the Libertarian standpoint that freedom for all Americans also applies in the bedroom. As half the crowd begins to turn on her, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (Beau Blanchard) decries her friend, saying that free love is an assault on traditional marriage.
Thus begins Victoria Woodhull’s presidential campaign, where she must defend her views on freedom and marriage while following the instructions of her philosophical and possibly spiritual leader, Demosthenes. Slowly losing support and votes, Woodhull considers calling out her political opponents for their affairs and their hypocrisy. I’ll be honest. Free Lover is an odd little biography of an unconventional Presidential campaign, and it’s all true. The problem appeared less about Woodhull being a woman and unable to legally vote…for herself. But it’s the fact that she stood on a platform she believed in and a campaign derailed by a single issue. Free Lover is much more about bringing awareness to this little known figure, whom probably very few people know about beyond feminist circles. It’s a glimpse into how the political sausage is made and how ruthless we become in pursuing power. It’s a very low-budget production with costumes that fit the period and enough props to make the sets feel like we’re in the proper era. The staging, though, feels like a stage play along with the acting. Ultimately, the story wins out over production values in Free Lover. For screening information, visit the Free Lover official website.
