The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary, narrated by Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap), tracing the rise and fall of Nixon from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 to his resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War.
The film draws on hundreds of hours of TV news taped off-air by the Nixon White House to tell the untold story of the Watergate burglars. How did tapping the wrong phone with a bug that didn't work lead to their arrests and Nixon's resignation?
It also explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke a fevered political landscape of culture wars, dirty tricks, paranoia and assassination.
Selected for the Film London Breakthrough Screenings 2025
UK theatrical release: Bertha DocHouse - 19 September 2026
North American digital release: 29 September 2026
Presidential candidate Richard Nixon during 1968 campaign motorcade in Chicago (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-0866-01)
President Nixon and Pat Nixon wave to a crowd in Atlanta, Georgia during a campaign motorcade, 12 October 1972 (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-D0692-12)
President Nixon on the telephone in the Oval Office, 23 June 1972 (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-9461-17A)
President Nixon during a campaign stop at a shopping center in Paoli, PA, 21 September 1972 (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-30-0184A)
The office partition in DNC Watergate headquarters where the five burglars were hiding when they were caught, 17 June 1972 (US National Archives)
Mugshot of Watergate burglar Rolando Martinez, 17 June 1972 (US National Archives)
Mugshot of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker, 17 June 1972 (US National Archives)
Mugshot of Watergate burglar Virgilio Gonzalez, 17 June 1972 (US National Archives)
The contents of the bag Rolando Martinez was carrying during the Watergate burglary, including three bugs and two cameras, 17 June 1972 (US National Archives)
8. President Nixon greets a crowd of Air Force servicemen at Homestead Air Force base in Florida, 24 August 1972 (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-D0198-23)
President Nixon and Henry Kissinger on board Air Force One, 20 February 1972 (US National Archives, 37-WHPO-8473-17)
President Nixon using chopsticks during a state banquet in China, 26 February 1972 (US National Archives, C8616-29)
More press images available on request.