Reply #3: Election filmmakers swing with Ohio vote [View All]

Election filmmakers swing with Ohio vote

By John Horn

Los Angeles Times


Documentary filmmakers James Stern and Adam Del Deo traveled to Ohio last November in search of a specific election story. When the presidential voting was completed, they ended up with a very different movie.

Stern and Del Deo, each of whom voted for Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic Party nominee, initially traveled to the battleground state to document how thousands of Republican poll watchers would challenge Ohio voters. The two filmmakers were among scores of show-business personalities parachuting into swing states in support of the Democratic ticket.

“I was outraged” by the poll challengers, says Stern, whose producing credits include “Michael Jordan to the Max” and both the upcoming drama “Proof” and basketball documentary “The Year of the Yao.”

When the imagined drama of Kerry supporters being barred from voting didn’t materialize, Stern and Del Deo decided not to leave Ohio. Instead, almost overnight, they shifted the focus of “Ohio: An American Vote,” dispatching their camera crews, which ultimately numbered 18, to record all aspects of the final campaign push in the election’s most important state.

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They hope to have a rough assembly later this month and will then schedule a dozen follow-up interviews. When those conversations are added, Stern and Del Deo will begin showing the film to potential distributors.

More: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/11007153.htm