By the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2009)

Nearly a year before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency, two filmmakers began to roll cameras on the young senator. Over the next 19 months, across the USA, the daily events of the presidential campaign are chronicled.

Directors:

Amy Rice, Alicia Sams

Stars:

Barack Obama, Neil Abercrombie, Dick Armey

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Barack Obama	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Neil Abercrombie	...	Himself
Dick Armey	...	Himself (archive footage)
David Axelrod	...	Himself - Chief Campaign Strategist
Bill Ayers	...	Himself (archive footage)
Melissa Bean	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jill Biden	...	Herself
Joe Biden	...	Himself - Democrat Vice-Presidential Candidate
Mike Blake	...	Himself - Iowa Political Director
Wolf Blitzer	...	Himself (archive footage)
Tucker Carlson	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ronnie Cho	...	Himself - Organizer
Hillary Clinton	...	Herself - Democrat Candidate (as Hillary Rodham Clinton)
James Clyburn	...	Himself (as James E. Clyburn)
Candy Crowley	...	Herself - HSCNN

Storyline

In 2006, Barack Obama -- a largely unknown freshman senator from Illinois -- hits the campaign trail in a struggle to gain national recognition. Cameras follow Obama as he recovers from nearly losing to Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and meets the challenge of his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, in the general election. After a hard-fought campaign, Obama successfully captures the nation's imagination, becoming the first African-American president in U.S. history.

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Plot Keywords:

african american president | african american | cellular phone | african american vote | campaign | 

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Taglines:

The Election of Barack Obama

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

HBO - Interview with Amy Rice and Alicia Sams HBO - One Year Later: Mr. Cho Goes to Washington

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

By the People

Company Credits

Production Co:

Citi Productions, Class 5 Films, Green Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in The Making of by the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2010)

User Reviews

behind-the-scenes

This is a behind-the-scene of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. It starts with him watching the mid-term election in 2006. He would announce a few months later. This follows the campaign all the way to the night of victory.

This is in the same vein as the great documentary "The War Room (1993)" which followed Bill Clinton's campaign. It is inferior in a couple of ways. It's been done before. It's now more or less a historical document at this point. I would have loved one for W. The other problem is the limited drama.

This one follows more with people further down the food chain. "The War Room" followed James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. They were great characters near the top of the food chain. This one is a lot of (to quote Palin) Hopey Changey thing. It follows organizer Ronnie Cho who is representative of the ground troops. The upper level stuff is never quite so compelling. It feels like we're just outside of the war room. It might also be Obama's calm persona injecting into his campaign or that everybody is tapping away at their Blackberry. This is a nice recount of the campaign. I can't help but wonder if Hilary's campaign has a more compelling behind-the-scenes movie.