USA, 2009, 95 Minute Running Time Genre/Subjects: Colorado, Documentary, Political Program: Documentary FilmsLanguage: English
DIRECTOR: AJ Schnack Producer: AJ Schnack, Britta Erickson, Jenny Chikes, Shirley Moyers, Nathan TruesdellEditor: AJ Schnack, Nathan TruesdellCinematographer: Steven Bognar, Daniel Junge, Laura Poitras, Julie Reichert, Wayne Robbins, Paul Taylor, David WilsonPrincipal Cast: John Hickenlooper, Chantal Unfug, Allison Sherry, Curtis Hubbard, Kevin Scott, Barbara Cohen, Mark Cohen
Over 50,000 guests – including 20,000 members of the press, 15,000 delegates plus as many volunteers, 10,000 VIPs, and countless protestors – descended on Denver, Colorado, from August 25 to 28 for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. As city mayor John Hickenlooper challenged his staff to produce “the best convention ever,” a handful of filmmakers were on the ground, cameras rolling, with an all-access pass to capture exactly what it takes to fulfill such a daunting directive. Among them was festival returnee AJ Schnack (Gigantic, SDFF 25; About a Son, SDFF 29). Convention takes the audience on a whirlwind trip behind the scenes of one of the largest and most important events in not only Denver’s history but that of the nation. Schnack and his crew split up to concentrate separately on three very different yet essential branches of the convention process: the mayor’s office, The Denver Post’s corps of political journalists, and the activist group Recreate ’68 – each composed of whom Schnack calls, “in the best sense of the phrase, everyday people. They could be your next-door neighbors. Yet here they are, tasked with the biggest event of the millennium.” The momentum of the film never lessens, its coverage leading from the week before the convention commences right up to the moment of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, as tears of hope stream down the faces of those for whom it is all just beginning to sink in. Convention offers a remarkably up close and personal look at the arduous yet thrilling endeavor that is the political process in the United States of America.