PRESENTED BY: DAILY PLANET 
TICKETS:
| SCREENINGS:
SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 5:10PM; ST. ANTHONY U.S. PREMIERE Director: HEATH EIDEN DIRECTOR PRESENT. IS THIS ANY WAY TO CHOOSE A PRESIDENT? On the evening of June 5, 1968, American democracy was dealt a severe blow. Within hours of winning the California Democratic primary, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. That tragic act set in motion the chain of events that led to the disastrous 1968 Democratic National Convention; anti-war riots, police violence, vicious party infighting. The outcome—determined on the streets of Chicago and in political backrooms—led to defeat in the national election. Never again, said the Democratic Party. In the future, the convention would be purely ceremonial. The candidate would be chosen, as Joan Didion writes, “by a greater emphasis on primaries." Our question: what is a primary and how democratic is it? |
Enter Ordinary Citizen, Heath Eiden of Stowe, Vermont. Days after he bought a handicam to record the birth of his first child, his neighbor down the road decided to run for president. Howard Dean’s 2004 candidacy began unofficially in the small towns of Vermont – backyard barbeques, neighborhood get-togethers. Heath dropped by with family and handicam, and kept on going. As the Dean campaign got serious, so did Heath’s footage – observing from the grassroots and the rollicking periphery, the primary trail. Throughout, Heath’s footage contrasts starkly with media reportage. Heath’s Dean is intelligent and measured; his grassroots citizens are cool and thoughtful. But both they and Dean appear unrecognizable in the media's mad representation of them. Nevertheless, as Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel says to Heath, ‘Dean gave the Democratic party its backbone’. Could there be an Obama without the Dean prologue? ‘Take back our country’ was daring for Dean in 2004, but it paved the way for Obama's ‘Change’ in 2008. On the road with Heath and Dean, the primary process is seen up close and personal. Media celebrities speak candidly to Heath's camera and some, like a particular FOX News crew, are unreservedly crude and menacing. Yet, it turns out, this is not the picture the nation sees on TV. Is this a sane and reasonable way to pick our leaders? Along the way Eiden, who grew up in Minnesota, catches up with current U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken as he gets tangled up in a Manchester, NH, political brawl. There’s also Ted Mondale, son of the former vice-president, who continues an inspiring tradition of leading political newcomers to knock on doors for Democrats in Iowa winter freezes. Hillary Clinton, Martin Sheen and Ted Kennedy also made appearances in this important roller-coaster ride through American democracy. USA • 2008 • 88 MINUTES • DIRECTOR: HEATH EIDEN  |
