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Paul Stekler is a little jealous of the big box-office numbers attack dog filmmaker Michael Moore earned for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling For Columbine. In another sense, though, Moore is probably jealous of Stekler, a former Louisianan and current film professor at UT-Austin.

Stekler scored a White House one-on-one with beleaguered Bush advisor Karl Rove for Last Man Standing, his dissection of the Republican revolution in Texas state government. Moore being granted the same access would be like Hunter Thompson getting an afternoon with Richard Nixon. But that’s just one of the benefits of a left-leaning documentary filmmaker clinging steadfast to a tell-it-like-it-is mantra, a true no-spin zone. Stekler has diehard fans on both sides of the aisle.

“If I made films that 50% of the world won’t even walk into because they think it’s biased, I’d consider that a failure,” Stekler says.

His latest work has been producing biographies on Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt and dustbowl troubadour Woody Guthrie, but the Harvard grad built his name on compelling political portraits. He made the career change in the mid-’80s while serving as an assistant professor of political science at Tulane.

“Had I not lived in Louisiana, I would not be a filmmaker today,” Stekler emphasizes. “It’s the colorful characters and colorful politics and the atmosphere of this place where anything is possible.”

Stekler has since investigated the myth of Custer’s Last Stand with 1993’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn and received unanimous acclaim for his 2000 Sundance winner George Wallace. The New York Times called the three-hour firebrand political epic “stunning.”

“Most people see my stuff and like it, but a million people aren’t going to go out see it,” Stekler says. “It’s not March of the Penguins. I’m a pretty successful documentary filmmaker, which means my immediate family knows who I am.”

Most Baton Rougeans know Stekler’s Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics, a picture of the 1988 gubernatorial race between Buddy Roemer and Edwin Edwards and the voting culture that pitted them against each other. The film caught the attention of PBS and ignited the station’s popular series The American Experience. While Louisiana Boys may have been a slightly cynical look at the state’s unique political persona, Stekler says he’s always been an idealist underneath. He is a political idealist with a complete belief in the power and purpose of the documentary.

“I continually hope that government and politics can reflect the best aspects of human behavior,” Stekler says. “If I was that much of a cynic, why would I keep making films about politics?”