About the Movie
“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.
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dismissed the civil rights paradigm as outdated.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 concluded, Senator Obama was the nominee of the Democratic
party and went on to become the first African American elected President of
the United States of America. This remarkable accomplishment will allow our
film-Presidential Race-to help explore how America has changed nearly fifty
years after the start of the Civil Rights movement.We will use footage from
the campaign and will interview politicans, activists, artists, athletes, and
regular folks about their view on race.
Several tantalizing questions have arisen as a result of Obama’s victory. Have
American views on race changed? Was unconscious racial bias a factor? Did Obama
run as a Black candidate? Will the public be more critical of a Black president
that a White one? We look forward to getting a wide range of perspectives in
our film.
We will also use archival footage from the long campaign from sources such
as the Daily Show, CNN, and MSNBC. Finally we will interview experts and celebrities
such Eric Yamamoto, Norman Lear, Dennis Haysbert, Thomas A. Saenz, Julie Su,
Dr. Loma Flowers, 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.
