'Inconvenient Truth' Director Helming Secret Obama Doc?
Filed under: Documentary, RumorMonger, Politics, Cinematical Indie
From global warming to toasting a presidential candidate? Davis Guggenheim, who won an Academy Award for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, is reportedly working on a film about Senator Barack Obama that will be shown during the Democratic National Convention in late August, according to The Huffington Post.
Guggenheim was seen accompanying Obama during his visit to Butte, Montana, on Friday afternoon. Guggenheim said only that he was traveling with his son and doing some interviews, though a tipster told a reporter the film shoot was on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the convention. An Obama staff member later told the New York Post that "elements of what [Guggenheim] is shooting may be used," but declined to be more specific.
The Huff Post article says that Davis Guggenheim's father, Charles Guggenheim, chronicled John F. Kennedy, though IMDb shows that Charles Guggenheim won an Academy Award for Robert Kennedy: Remembered, a live action short subject that was compiled from footage that Guggenheim had shot over the years.
An Inconvenient Truth didn't move me as it did many others, but it would be interesting to see if Guggenheim could make something that would liven up the convention broadcast. No word on whether Senator John McCain has recruited any Academy Award-winning documentary filmmakers, though Variety described him as "a major movie freak" back in January 2007; he picked John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate as his favorite political film.
Related Headlines
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I love how you can make a political movie, but it's not considered a political advertisement. Great workaround. As in scummy workaround.
Posted at 3:27PM on Jul 7th 2008 by Rocketboy
3. My only problem with "An Inconvenient Truth" is that by the very definition of the word, it was not a documentary. It was a filmed stage show, everything, including the audience was handpicked and staged and reshot several times. This is not a documentary, it is not organic. It is however an important film, but, should be in a different category, the academy definitely overlooked the categorization for the content of the film.
Posted at 6:15PM on Jul 7th 2008 by Beanie
4. Beanie - what exactly would you call AIT? Part of it was certainly documenting a staged event, like, say, Scorsese's Last Waltz or his recent Rolling Stones documentary - both staged for the cameras ...in addition to having original "organic" material. Would you call it a "reality film," a non-fiction film, or what? What would you call most of Errol Morris' films, which are filled with recreations, directed visuals and so on? Perhaps a standard to apply to a documentary is not it's spontaneity but it's ambition - since not a one would be objective in any way? (I won't even mention Michael Moore here)
Do you have a problem with these other "documentaries" or is it just AIT, then this begs the question, why such a bone to pick with this film in particular
Posted at 11:11PM on Jul 7th 2008 by Marty
5. AIT was a lecture, a seminar. Not a documentary.
See "My Kid Could Paint That" to learn more about documentary films.
Posted at 11:51AM on Jul 12th 2008 by Rocketboy
6. Beanie - what exactly would you call AIT? Part of it was certainly documenting a staged event, like, say, Scorsese's Last Waltz or his recent Rolling Stones documentary - both staged for the cameras ...in addition to having original "organic" material. Would you call it a "reality film," a non-fiction film, or what? What would you call most of Errol Morris' films, which are filled with recreations, directed visuals and so on? Perhaps a standard to apply to a documentary is not it's spontaneity but it's ambition - since not a one would be objective in any way? (I won't even mention Michael Moore here)
Do you have a problem with these other "documentaries" or is it just AIT, then this begs the question, why such a bone to pick with this film in particular
Posted at 9:48PM on Jul 12th 2008 by Johnathan
1. One wonders if an Obama doc will be filled with as much bad data as "AIT."
By "bad data" I kind of mean "lies for political and financial benefit as well as massive amounts of junk science and alarmism."
Posted at 3:11PM on Jul 7th 2008 by malren