# Documentary traces how culture wars divided a Pennsylvania school board

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/our-job-was-not-to-attack-how-do-you-make-a-documentary-about-americas-culture-wars/
- Published: 2026-09-22T10:00:53+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-22T10:46:35+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/22/bucks-county-usa-documentary-culture-wars
- Topics: Culture, Entertainment, Film, Music, TV

## Key points

- A documentary examines one Pennsylvania town’s culture-war divisions.
- School-board disputes intensified after Covid restrictions and closures.
- Filmmakers aim to understand polarisation rather than attack either side.

## Summary

Barry Levinson and Robert May’s five-part documentary series *Bucks County, USA* examines how Covid-era disputes transformed an affluent Pennsylvania community’s school board into a battleground over masks, race, LGBTQ+ issues, books and elections. By following two close teenage friends whose parents occupy opposing political camps, the series explores America’s wider culture wars without openly taking sides, showing how parental concern, misinformation and personal pride can harden into bitter local conflict.

Filmed over four years from late 2021, the series focuses on Central Bucks, north of Philadelphia, where public meetings descended into shouting matches and political campaigning became unusually aggressive. Conservative investor Paul Martino reportedly spent $500,000 helping install school board members after objecting to pandemic closures, while a new conservative majority pursued books it associated with grooming or LGBTQ+ themes; the filmmakers sought perspectives from parents, pupils, teachers and activists across the divide.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.