President Obama with Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, the directors of the documentary,
By the People.
Tomorrow, millions of men and women will take part in the American political system. Like so many things, the election process in this country engenders mixed feelings. On the one hand, no matter its flaws, it's still an amazing thing to behold when people from all walks of life and all philosophies come together to express their voice and determine the collective will of a society, and the results are dealt with peacefully. In the grand scheme of human history, the quaint notions of equality among all persons and representative democracy are fairly recent developments. As of 2012,
117 out of the 195 political entities on Earth were electoral democracies, up significantly from about 40 percent of the world's countries in the 1980s. But some of those 117 nations are basically democracies on paper but not exactly in practice, since almost every country on this planet, including North Korea, claims to be democratic and represent "the people" (i.e.,
The People's Republic of Tyranny). And even among societies that have aspired to these principles for centuries, we're still working out some major kinks.
The glass half-empty contrast to the rosy version of electoral politics most of us were taught in social studies class is that this is also a process that can be incredibly manipulative, influenced by the deep pockets of special interests and damn ugly in tone. The media dynamics of how something is said can be just as important, if not more important, than what is being said.
Over the years, films about campaigns and elections have captured these elements on film. So for this week's post, I'm going to look at some of the more interesting campaign documentaries and the aspects of elections they observed.
Follow beneath the fold for more.
► Primary
This film is considered incredibly influential for cinéma vérité documentary film production. Primary follows Sens. John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they campaign to win the 1960 Wisconsin primary for the Democratic presidential nomination. Produced by Robert Drew, shot by Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles, and edited by D. A. Pennebaker, the film took advantage of recent advancements in portable film equipment, and it's decidedly hands off in how it deals with the subject matter. There are no interviews or interaction with the candidates or public. The camera acts as a fly on the wall during the five days leading up to the primary. The result is a more intimate look at both candidates, where you see the process of campaigning (circa 1960), the reaction of voters during electioneering, and clear distinctions between both men's styles.
From Andrea Passafiume at
Turner Classic Movies:
Before cameras could roll, however, Drew first had to convince both Kennedy and Humphrey to allow him this level of close access. Drew and Richard Leacock flew to Detroit to meet Senator Kennedy, who then invited the two men to fly back to Washington with him so they could talk. It was on the flight that Drew explained how the project would work. He and his hand-picked crew would follow Kennedy for five days straight from sun up to sundown. Kennedy wouldn't have to do anything - just go about his business and forget the cameras were even there.
Kennedy was open to the idea, but wanted assurance that the film would be handled with fairness. Drew told Kennedy that he would just have to trust him. "He gave me a long look," recalled Drew, "and said, 'If I don't call you by tomorrow, we're on.' And he didn't call, and we were on." It didn't hurt his cause, Drew added later, that he and Richard Leacock both had ties to Harvard, which was Kennedy's alma mater.
Drew then got Hubert Humphrey to agree to the same terms, and the film project that became known as Primary was soon ready to commence.
► The War Room
D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus' 1993 film, The War Room, documenting the Clinton campaign during the 1992 presidential election, is centered on the staff—in this case George Stephanopoulos and James Carville—more than the candidate himself. Going into the 1992 presidential election, the Republican Party had controlled the White House for 20 of the previous 24 years. But the circumstances surrounding that election led to an odd confluence of events, including a serious third party candidate. And just getting out of the Democratic primary was seen as a minor miracle, given that Bill Clinton had been hit with accusations of both adultery and draft-dodging.
Carville and Stephanopoulos act as contrasting personalities as they deal with those issues and others. We follow them from the New Hampshire primary to Election Day as they defeat President Bush with "It's the economy, stupid." The '92 presidential election was toward the beginning stages of a 24-hour cable news cycle being something campaigns had to worry about. And The War Room gets across the importance of political operatives in putting out fires and stoking them.
► Please Vote For Me
Don Edkins and Weijun Chen's film Please Vote For Me centers on students in grade three at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. They are given the choice of electing a class monitor, sort of a student body president with some extra powers like doling out punishments for bad behavior. The position is usually appointed by the class' teacher, but the filmmakers were able to negotiate with the school to do things a little differently.
The result is an experiment in Chinese democracy. The class election is to be based on three events: a talent show, a debate between candidates, and a final speech appealing to their other students. However, it doesn't take long before deals are being made and the tone of the election takes its toll on some of the children.
From Ryan Stewart at
Moviefone:
The election is quickly boiled down to three students: a tough and skinny boy, Luo Lei, with a reputation as a classroom leader and bully; another boy, Cheng Cheng, who is somewhat pudgy and aggressively political in nature, seems to plan out every step he takes, and is constantly gauging his own support, and then there's a third candidate, a shy but ambitious little girl named Xiafei. Each of the children are presumably products of China's one-child policy, and throughout the film we see their parents, not so much doting on them as monitoring their progress as closely as a parole officer might monitor a recently released inmate. Only Xiafei seems to feel the intense pressure she's under, and at one point in the film she breaks down crying in the middle of class and is escorted out. One of her rival candidates will eventually use this outburst against her during a debate, asking aloud how she could possibly be the right person to lead a classroom of students if she's not strong enough to keep her tears bottled up.
► Our Brand Is Crisis
Rachel Boynton's documentary concerns the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. The consulting firm of Stan Greenberg, James Carville, and Bob Shrum are brought in to help candidate Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada ("Goni") use American political campaign techniques. The problem is that Sánchez de Lozada is disliked by large portions of the Bolivian public for being wealthy and indifferent to the suffering of Bolivians. The consultants use focus groups and poll testing to formulate a message that stresses Bolivia is in a crisis, and Sánchez de Lozada is the only person to lead them out of the crisis. However, the truth is that Sánchez de Lozada could screw up a cup of coffee.
The documentary is framed as American politics being used to elect the wrong man to the wrong position, given what eventually happened after Sánchez de Lozada's successful election as president. The story is being adapted into a film to be produced by George Clooney.
► Journeys with George
A big factor in the 2000 presidential election was the press' open disdain for Al Gore. If you go back and watch the coverage and commentary during that campaign, the media acted the same way a high school clique does when bullying a kid by making fun of every word that came out his mouth. Every action was parsed and every word was filtered to be an exaggeration to make Gore look foolish.
On the other side, the coverage of George W. Bush was for the most part glowing, especially from the people in his traveling press corps. Alexandra Pelosi and Aaron Lubarsky's documentary Journeys with George gives you an idea of why that was. Bush comes off as personable and a great guy to hang out with at a party. But those probably aren't the most important qualities when choosing a president, as was borne out by his presidency.
► By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
Filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams follow Barack Obama from election night 2006 to election night 2008. Produced by Edward Norton, the film takes you through all the ups and downs of the first Obama presidential campaign. Rice and Sams actually began following Obama in mid-2006, eventually gaining access and trust with both the candidate and staff, and shot over 700 hours of footage.
From David Zurawik at the
Baltimore Sun:
Viewers meet staffer Ronnie Cho, a twentysomething organizer handling Iowa's Polk County for Obama.
Cho's story is one of the narratives that makes "By the People" soar. Following him on and off all the way to election night in 2008 was a brilliant choice by Rice and Sams. Cho represents so many of the themes of this film and Obama's campaign: hope, youth, change, multiculturalism and unbridled optimism.
► Street Fight
For most of my teen years, I lived in and around Memphis, Tennessee. The mayor of Memphis for most of the 1990s and Aughts was Willie Herenton. He was the first African American to be elected mayor of the city, which is a significant milestone given some of the issues surrounding race that Memphis has struggled with. But Herenton was awful at the job and basically diddled over those two decades while Memphis crumbled, watched as the city school system collapsed, practiced patronage and used the police force as his enforcers. He continued to be re-elected because the response from many in the community was that he may be a crook and a fool, but he was "our" crook and fool. And Herenton has a history of playing right into the city's racial politics come election time, and would shake off any criticisms as rooted in bias and people being out of touch with the community. The theme song for Herenton's last mayoral re-election campaign was "Shake the Haters Off."
A similar dynamic occurred back in 2000, when then Illinois state Senator Barack Obama unsuccessfully challenged Congressman Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary for Illinois 1st congressional district. Rush portrayed Obama as an elitist, Harvard "educated fool" from Hyde Park that was out of touch with the concerns of Chicago's black neighborhoods.
Marshall Curry's Street Fight examines the 2002 campaign between Cory Booker and Sharpe James for mayor of Newark, New Jersey. James was a 16-year incumbent, who then 32-year-old city councilman Booker argued was a product and symptom of machine politics that had failed to keep his promises, pointing to high crime rates, high school dropout rates and record poverty levels. James and his supporters point to downtown development, accuse Booker of being a proxy for right-wing interests, and that he took money from the Ku Klux Klan. Fliers turn up accusing Booker of being part of a Jewish conspiracy and the implicit accusation in all of the attacks is that Cory Booker isn't black enough.
From the PBS series
P.O.V.:
These are brutal machine tactics; livelihoods are on the line. Booker's team has to run a "stealth" campaign that shields the identity of many local supporters. But this is only the beginning of James' bare-knuckle tactics — which turn menacing when the mayor's bodyguards accost Street Fight's film crew at a rally. Despite director Curry having gotten permission and encouragement from the mayor's campaign press director to attend, Newark police in suits eject him. The next time Curry attends a public, outdoor James rally, the mayor himself approaches the camera and has his security shut down the filming. In the middle of it all, a strip club scandal taints both campaigns, and as the election nears, federal law enforcement sends in observers to monitor cheating and violence.
► A Perfect Candidate
R.J. Cutler and David Van Taylor's documentary follows Oliver North's unsuccessful 1994 bid for a Virginia Senate seat, with North campaign officials Mark Goodin and Mark Merritt being the main focus. The 1994 off-year elections were a bloodbath for the Democratic Party. Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb was seen as especially vulnerable, given the political atmosphere of the time and he was being plagued by a sex scandal involving a beauty queen, a bottle of champagne, and a nude massage. Former Miss Virginia Tai Collins posed for Playboy and claimed she had been having an affair with Robb since 1983. This was coupled with previous allegations that Robb had been present at parties where cocaine was being used. Enter Oliver North, who won the Republican nomination, even though he himself had the baggage of the Iran-Contra affair.
This led to an interesting situation in which Robb was flanked by candidates like North on his right, and former Gov. Douglas Wilder on his left, who ran as an independent candidate. Neither Robb nor North come off all that well in the documentary. One of the most memorable scenes is of Robb's campaign manager commiserating with Goodin during a debate, complaining that Robb is so cheap the staff has to pay out of pocket for hotel rooms during the campaign. North is presented as an empty suit and opportunist, who is finally undone when former First Lady Nancy Reagan injects herself into the race to stop his candidacy and President Clinton is able to persuade Wilder to drop out and endorse Robb.
The title of the documentary comes from a sermon given at a black church where Robb is campaigning. The minister states there are no perfect people, and therefore there can't be any perfect candidates.