Galisteo Media Arts Turns 'Karl Marx in America' Into Documentary

Galisteo Media Arts has acquired the adaptation rights to historian Andrew Hartman's 2025 book "Karl Marx in America" and is already developing a documentary under the title "American Boogeyman: Karl Marx in America."

Hartman will serve as an adviser on the project and appear as a key interview subject. According to the film's official description, it "will explore the enduring influence of one of America's most debated — and least understood — intellectual figures, and the provocative contradiction: Marx's name has long been vilified in American public life, while his ideas have helped shape the nation's political, economic and cultural debates."

What does the producer claim?

Robert Rosenheck, Galisteo's CEO and the film's producer, framed the project in uncompromising terms. "Karl Marx is the 'American Boogeyman,' a shadowy figure we have effectively written out of American history, but his ideas have been woven into the fabric of American society," Rosenheck said.

He then listed what he called concrete results of Marx's influence on America: the eight-hour workday, federal income tax, Social Security, public schools and women's right to vote.

"At this pivotal moment in our history it's time for us to revisit Marx to understand his philosophy and his goals," Rosenheck said. "People may be surprised to learn how integral they are to the American project."

That is a strong causal claim. The source material offers Hartman's scholarship as its backing, and Hartman's on-camera participation is the project's clearest credential. What the announcement does not include: a director, a release date, a distributor or a production timeline.

Who is behind the film?

Rosenheck and Cindy Capobianco founded the Galisteo Group in 2020 with the stated goal of backing projects with social and environmental impact. The company's recent output includes two titles:

• "A Statement," a historical drama directed by Tom McCarthy
• "Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln," a 2024 documentary by Shaun Peterson

Both films suggest a house interest in revisiting contested chapters of American history — a pattern the Marx documentary extends directly.

On the business side, Galisteo Media Arts is represented by Howie Sanders of Anonymous Content and Alla Savranskaia of Greenberg Glusker LLP.

What changes for the audience?

For viewers, the announcement signals one thing: a feature-length treatment of Marx's American afterlife, built around a historian whose 2025 book anchors the project, is now in active development rather than circulating as a pitch. Whether the film can sustain Rosenheck's sweeping claims about workdays, taxes and suffrage will depend on what Hartman and the eventual filmmaking team put on screen — no director is attached yet, and the production has announced no broadcast or streaming partner.

Until those pieces are named, "American Boogeyman" remains a rights acquisition with a provocative thesis and a credible scholarly anchor.