The American Ruling Class

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The American Ruling Class
Directed by	John Kirby
Written by	Lewis H. Lapham
Produced by	Libby Handros
Starring	Lewis H. Lapham Paul Cantagallo Caton Burwell
Cinematography	Mark Benjamin
Edited by	John Kirby Leah O'Donnell
Music by	Qasim Naqvi Lucas Johnson-Yahraus
Distributed by	The Alive Mind
Release date	April 26, 2005 (2005-04-26)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

The American Ruling Class is a 2005 dramatic documentary film written by Lewis H. Lapham and directed by John Kirby that "explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic."^[1] It seeks to answer the question, "Does America have a ruling class?" Its producers consider it the first "dramatic-documentary-musical."^[2] A rough-cut of the film was shown at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, the final version of the film was shown on the Sundance Channel in July 2007, and it had its theatrical premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 2008.^{[citation needed]}