The project, which had its debut screening in Los Angeles on Wednesday, is among the most anticipated of all documentaries from last year because of the access they obtained by directors Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and producer Edward Norton.
You see it in the backstage moments, before Obama takes the stage to massive crowd, or in the victory trek that David Axelrod and David Plouffe take from the Chicago headquarters to the candidate's election night hotel suite, where there is a brief glimpse inside.
This documentary isn't "The War Room," D.A. Pennebaker's 1993 documentary about the Clinton campaign that focused almost exclusively on George Stephanopoulos and James Carville. "By the People" is less expose and more historical record, capturing the campaign from start to finish and most often in a positive light. [...]
The project is the brainchild of Rice, who started shooting Obama on May 11, 2006, and stopped on June 28, 2009. She described a process of constantly pressing for access, with the threshold higher as Obama headed toward Election Day.
There are candid moments in "By the People": access to Michelle Obama at home with Malia and Sasha, interviews with Obama's sister and brother in law in Hawaii, an audio interview with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who describes the child Obama as a "normal boy" who "wanted to be a big-time basketball player." But there is nothing that could possibly be embarrassing about it. Obama and, by and large his staffers, are largely calm, cool and collected in their private moments. [...]
In another instance during the general election, Axelrod grouses, "It is getting very ugly out there. What McCain and Palin did was really irresponsible. They are inciting people." [...] There is some angst over Reverend Wright, as Obama's speech on race is cast as a kind of gutsy move to salvage the campaign, but it's hardly the level of the drama that played on on cable news.
"These are people who have a kind of instinctive restraint," Norton said. "It is one of the things you see about Obama, both publicly and in his private moments. You see how carefully he controls his emotional reactions. Even with the trust we established with them, Axelrod in particular is too savvy a person not to know the presence of a camera affects the way people talk and behave."
"At every generation in politics, people are more savvy at what it means to expose yourself, and I think this is one of the most media savvy bunch of campaigners in history." [...]
Blake, who now works as deputy associate director for intergovernmental affairs at the White House, trekked to Los Angeles for the screening. He said the movie will "remind us of why we all worked so hard."
"Change takes time," he said, "and I think the campaign is a testament to that."
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