Two weeks before the election of Barack Obama, I asked my friends around the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08, a day that had become historic before it had even taken place. In this documentary, a global canvas unfolds: in St. Louis and Austin, idealistic volunteers think they can turn their states blue; in Chicago, voter lines grow even longer when Obama shows up to cast his own vote; in Paris, an organization discusses whether there could ever be a black President of France; in Dubai, Berlin, Geneva and New Delhi, expatriates express their emotion from a distance; and in Harlem, a felon casts doubt on whether any of this will actually affect his life. As we approach the final announcement of Obamas victory at 11pm EST, what emerges is a portrait of how people choose to live through history: the celebration of a new future remaining entangled with the universally visible tensions of the past.
The objective of The 11/4/08 Project is to use the film medium and interactive technology to capture a moment in time, and reinvent the process of writing history. By choosing the day of Barack Obama's election - a moment that was expected to be "historic" before it had even occurred - I was able to prepare and commission over 20 filmmakers from all over the world to record their experiences of 11/4/08. Now, I am soliciting more footage so that this website can accumulate the most comprehensive library of footage shot that day, and become an experiment in interactive history.
http://www.11-4-08.com/Premiering at South by Southwest in March 2010.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(65 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
