The race isn’t over yet, but Class 5 Films is already shopping around for a distributor for a documentary about politician Barack Obama. Edward Norton’s production company has been at work on the untitled documentary since 2006, prior to Obama’s decision to run for president. Little did they know when they started what a wild ride they would be documenting.
The original intent wasn’t to glorify Barack Obama according to Norton. Instead the movie was just looking at Obama as a Senator who impressed quite a few people with his charisma and leadership. Variety reports Norton as saying, ”At the time, he was the new senator from Illinois. None of us had voted for him or contributed to his campaigns. None of us was saying, ‘I want to back this guy for president.’ It was more this generational experience, of seeing someone we felt represented us in a very unique and fresh way, and the desire to explore what would happen to the first person our age who staked a claim to national leadership."
A lot has changed since then, and the documentary has been there to capture it all, so it’s time to start looking for someone to release the film. Of course, finding a distributor may be difficult, since the story isn’t exactly over yet. Depending on how things go, Class 5 may want to keep filming up to November, or possibly even beyond that. That means the timetable is undetermined and the budget costs are still going.
Through it all Norton is insisting this isn’t just about Obama’s run for the Presidency, although it does have something to say about our country’s political system. ”The film has to say something about politics in America, and just because you have access doesn’t mean you have insight. A lack of material won’t be our problem, there are hundreds of hours of tape already. We’ve got to do the work.”
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