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Steve Skrovan voted for Al Gore in 2000. Four years later, he voted for Ralph Nader.

What changed during President Bush's first term?

Skrovan began making a documentary about Nader, the consumer crusader now widely characterized as a political spoiler.

"I'm not some wild-eyed radical who came to this," said Skrovan, 50, who grew up outside Cleveland. "I'm this guy who is a middle-of-the-road kind of person."

Skrovan also wasn't a documentary filmmaker before he took on "An Unreasonable Man," which will be screened next week at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill. He and co-director Henriette Mantel were old pals from the stand-up comedy circuit back in the '80s. Skrovan went on to win a couple of Emmys writing for TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond," and, a few years ago, he was looking for ideas for a production deal he had earned.

He remembered how Mantel used to tell stories about her days working for Nader on behalf of consumers in the late '70s. He had always kicked around the idea of a sitcom centered around the offices of a public-interest group and had even written a pilot.

But as time went on, the idea of a documentary about Nader grew.

"I put the pilot in my pocket . . . and the documentary took on a life of its own," Skrovan recalled.

He became intrigued by the story of Nader and the fact that it had never been told definitively in a film.

"I was fascinated by how people were so mad at him," Skrovan said, "how he went from folk hero to pariah."

"An Unreasonable Man," which drew praise a year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, doesn't shy away from criticizing Nader. Former members of Nader's Raiders lament their former mentor's descent into the presidential muck. And two liberal writers - Eric Alterman of the Nation and Todd Gitlin of Columbia University - are scathing in their attack on the man they say is responsible for the Bush presidency.

Skrovan said the men were interviewed during the heat of the battle - Gitlin during the 2004 campaign, Alterman three months after it - and seethed with passion.

"They were very good at letting their feelings be known," he said. "For that, I'm really grateful, because they bring a real energy to the movie. They represented a very real anger that was out there."

Certainly Skrovan and Mantel bring a sympathetic view to Nader, and, while both sides of the Nader story get told, that wasn't necessarily the filmmakers' goal.

"Balance was not what we were after," Skrovan said. "So, we weren't trying to tell a balanced story.

"Every story is from a particular point of view, whether it's a feature film or a documentary. . . . It's simply an attempt to experience what was out there, and let Nader and his people counter it and let the viewers decide what they think. He's never been afraid of a good debate or a good argument. And he's convinced of the essential righteousness of his convictions."

What did Skrovan think of Nader, whom he tossed questions at for eight hours at the end of nearly two years of filming?

"My impression of him personally is he is a really unique guy," Skrovan said. "There's something about this guy that's not like the rest of us."

Nader was interviewed over three days, the last of which was a four-hour discussion of politics. At the end of that day, they threw two quotes at Nader suggesting that "democracy is a consumer fraud" and that it is "an American myth." Skrovan was fully expecting Nader to sympathize with those sour assessments.

"To my surprise, he said, `Oh, no. Our democracy is the greatest thing ever invented by man. We just have to make it better,' " Skrovan recalled. "I thought to myself, `Oh, my God - this guy doesn't give in to the cynicism out there, despite the beating he has taken.' He refuses to throw up his hands and give up, even when most of us would give up. . . . There's something irresistible to me about that. And I think that's part of his appeal to young people."

Skrovan put it another way.

"I'm in show business. And most people would take a line like that and would declare from the mountaintop" - Skrovan does his best 19th-century orator voice - "`We have to make the myth a reality!' But he just kind of says it so matter-of-factly."

The camera in "An Unreasonable Man" also doesn't blink at Nader's monastic existence and his numerous clashes with loyal followers.

"In terms of personal relationships, that's also not like the rest of us, and that's not necessarily a good thing," Skrovan said. "It makes him a complex character, but not somebody I'd call a saint."

But still, the project helped change the former comic's worldview.

"It's the best thing I've ever done, personally," he said. "I've learned so much. I tell people I took a graduate course in political science - a very expensive one.

"My understanding of how power works in this country is so much more different than it was four years ago."

And he finds he's not as keen on the sitcom format and is thinking more about the big picture.

"The sitcom has been very satisfying - especially with a show like `Raymond.' But by its nature, series comedy is very small. It's about the little things in life that happen. . . . But this has given me an opportunity to tell bigger stories."

And that's the bottom line, he says, telling stories.

"For me it was, and still is, looking for a good story," Skrovan said.

And he says "An Unreasonable Man" is, bottom line, positive.

"I wanted to make it inspiration," Skrovan said. "Jerry Seinfeld made a joke at the Academy Awards, saying all the documentaries were so depressing. I don't think people come out of our documentary depressed. And that was intentional on our part."