Tonight, Poliwood, a documentary essay about the intersection of politics and celebrity, premieres on Showtime. Tomorrow night, By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, a celebratory look at Obama’s campaign, premieres on HBO. Together, they provide a look at the buoyant optimism that swept Obama into the White House, while making you wonder about the effect of TV on the political process.
It takes a director as smart as Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Diner) to make so bold a documentary about Hollywood and politics as Poliwood. Levinson puts himself on camera frequently, calling TV coverage “the most disastrous invention in the history of mankind” for stifling political discourse. Levinson also interviews an array of left- and right-wing activist-celebs.
Poliwood follows a group of well-known faces associated with the Creative Coalition, a bipartisan group of celebrities who are shown making an earnest effort to learn more about the issues and to grapple with how to use their celebrity to “make a difference” without coming off as arrogant.
In one segment, famous folk including Tim Daly and Anne Hathaway meet with a group of citizens, and are told bluntly that “ordinary” people resent the camera-time celebrities receive to air their political beliefs. “You guys think that you speak for us?” says one woman to an array of movie and TV stars. “You do not!”:
By The People spends a lot of time in Iowa in 2007, showing us how Barack Obama’s past as a community organizer helped focus and fortify all of his campaigns. There’s one striking moment when a young boy is shown making cold-calls to voters to solicit votes:
This is exactly the kind of footage that makes anti-Obama folks such as Glenn Beck yelp about “indoctrination.” There’s also a lot of sweet footage of the Obama family. I know the common refrain is that “the kids are off-limits” when it comes to campaigning, but now that the election is over, it’s interesting to see the now-President’s daughters interacting with their parents.
By The People and Poliwood, each in different ways, don’t for a second try to be objective, but it’s during their most subjective moments that they’re most interesting.
Think you’ll watch?
Comments (1-15) of 22 Add your comment
Wow, that clip with the kid was too funny. Sadly, that’s the real frustration people have to experience with the ignorance of a lot of Americans.
How dare people try and be optimistic and try and come up solutions! Its so un-American!
When I first saw the preview of the documentary that is going to air on HBO I laughed so hard at the frustration of that young boy. He reminded me so much of myself at that age when Bill Clinton first ran for president and I did phone banking. People were so shocked to get a call from an 8 year old little girl. I got yelled at a lot, but still love phone banking for campaigns to this day. Lit drops were also a good time for me. I believe my mom taught me how to be pro-active instead of sitting back and complaining about it.
Amen, sister.
Of course I’ll watch. Any chance to negate the Klan rantings of sad little Fox with the positive reality of Obama’s victory is one more blow for real journalism and progress.
Amen. And as far as Glenn (nutcase) Beck is concerned… let ‘em bleed. It will give him yet another opportunity to complain about how crappy American health care is.
Quote: “Levinson puts himself on camera frequently, calling TV coverage “the most disastrous invention in the history of mankind” for stifling political discourse.” Funny, that’s what they said about Newspapers in the 1800s.
“Poliwood” … really? My eyes are rolling so hard they’re stuck in the back of my head.
Obama’s election means nothing less than the death of granny when big government takes over health care. leave the US government to what it does best…guns, war and God!
Granny outlived her usefulness a long time ago anyways.
If Glenn Beck bleeds…it’s a good thing.
glenn beck is the greatest man ever lived
I agree! FOX News tells us like it is! I did not vote for Obama and proud of it… God Bless the USA, cause we need it! Hey Obama ,show us your green card!
If Glenn Beck bleeds…you know it’s a good thing.
The paragraph about Tim Daly and Anne Hathaway being hounded by citizens for airing their political beliefs got a chuckle out of me.
If only I had access to Showtime and HBO in my dorm room to watch both documentaries…
Wonder how much Campaign + Taxpayer money went into this Pravda presentation about the birth of our Dear Leader Obamao?
Looks like the Obots will want tohit the streets and ‘bleed’ a few opponents after watching this crap!
More Hollywood shilling for Obama…
To be exact–Poliwood producer Barry Levinson is a megabucks Dem Party financier. Of the 2 actors mentioned in the article, Tim Daly is a megabucks contributor to Obama and the Democratic Party.
“By the People” is produced by actor Edward Norton, a megabucks contributor to Obama nd the Democratic Party. The two directors, Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, are both Dem Party contributors.
Who would want to watch this mindless indoctrination by mindless “celebrities”?
It must suck to be intelligent, employed in a career as an actor, and have people tell you you’ve no right to an opinion, nor to be active for a cause.
poliwood is the show that makes you want puke.
Make Becks eyes bleed….i love it!! Maybe it will close his bleeding mouth for a minute