“I think I’m gonna be votin’ for that black boy. He seems to have a lot goin’ on upstairs.” — Life-long Republican from Wisconsin, interviewed on NPR

Using the historic campaign of Senator Barack Obama as their lens, nationally-known civil rights attorney Eva Paterson (Executive Producer) and a team of experienced professionals are creating a feature-length documentary film - Presidential Race - that explores the racial attitudes of Americans in 2008. As Americans consider whether to elect our first black president, the film will examine just how far we have come in the forty-five years since Martin Luther King electrified the country with his “I Have A Dream” speech.

Senator Obama began his campaign as the first “post-racial” candidate. During the early campaigning, few people considered Senator Obama a serious contender. Neither he nor the press addressed issues of color directly. Younger voters dismissed the civil rights paradigm as outdated. So, at first, we had to dig beneath the surface to identify racial issues. Were white Americans lying to pollsters (or fooling themselves) when they said they would vote for a black President? Would the fact that Senator Obama is not descended from West-African slaves make him “not black enough” for black voters? What exactly was Joe Biden saying when he called Senator Obama “articulate and clean”?

Soon, however, the Obama campaign gained momentum, and fascinating racial issues began bubbling to the surface. Would African-Americans’ pessimism about the chances of electing a black President stifle their enthusiasm for Senator Obama? How had he managed to win some of the whitest states in America? Did Obama’s poor early showings among Latinos and Asian-Americans reflect inter-group tensions? And what about that Wisconsin voter? His use of the term “black boy” suggests a racist, but his decision to switch parties and vote for Obama suggests otherwise. What does “racism” mean in light of such complexities?

Then, starting with the South Carolina primary, it became painfully clear that the Post-Racial Age had not yet dawned. Campaign staffers exchanged accusations about who had played “the race card” first. Sermons by Senator Obama’s pastor became the hottest videos on YouTube. Some condemned the Reverend Jeremiah Wright as an anti-American racist, while others decried the controversy as an attack on the black church. Amidst that turmoil, Senator Obama chose a course he had long avoided - a speech devoted exclusively to the subject of race. He spoke in Philadelphia with unprecedented candor and nuance, tracing the historical arc of American race relations from the Declaration of Independence, through the Civil War and the Civil Rights struggle, to the present day. Senator Obama acknowledged the “complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through, a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.” He encouraged Americans of all races to engage with one another, for “if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to [break the] racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.”

As the primary season enters its final stages, Senator Obama appears to have weathered these storms and seems poised to become the first black presidential nominee. Our film — Presidential Race — will take no position on the Obama candidacy, but will use this unique moment in American history as an opportunity to examine where we are as a country, nearly fifty years after the start of the Civil Rights movement.

We have shot extensive footage in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, California and Texas and we plan to follow Senator Obama’s campaign to its conclusion, whatever that may be. At rallies, at workplaces and on the street, we are interviewing politicians, activists, artists, athletes, and ordinary people about their views on race, and how those views affect and are affected by Senator Obama’s campaign. We also plan to film interviews with celebrities and experts like Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, Henry Louis Gates, Jesse Jackson, Bill Moyers, Dennis Haysbert, Eric Yamamoto, Norman Lear and others.

The filmmakers will wrap this original footage in a current and historical context, including excerpts from popular media sources (television news analysts, late-night hosts, and comedians), as well as archival footage from the Civil Rights movement. Renowned jazz artist Marcus Shelby is composing an original score for the film, which we will combine with other relevant music, current and historic.

We have assembled an incredibly talented team with proven track records, we’ve shot lots of amazing footage already, and the campaign continues to unfold in ways that make our film ever more timely. We are heartened by the reception we’ve received from people of all races and political persuasions. Intense and revealing dialogue seems to erupt wherever we go. We are excited to continue our journey.