Sarah Palin recently kicked off a week and probably a month of mudslinging with the following: "For me, the heels are on, the gloves are off.”

Democratic consultant Chris Lehane told the NYT that, "Campaigns are campaigns. In the last five days, it always comes down to a knife fight in a telephone booth." But was politics always played this way? When it comes to dirtying up American politics, many blame one man: Lee Atwater, long time party operative, George H. W. Bush’s campaign manager in 1988, and a mentor to Karl Rove who forever changed the face of politics. If there’s a dirty politics playbook out there, chances are, Atwater wrote it.

Emmy Award winning director Stefan Forbes, in his new film, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, reflects on what Atwater’s life tells us about American culture and politics. The film opens nationwide this week – and the distributors are targeting swing states. You can learn more about the film and get a copy of the DVD here.