HBO Image

It’s the first Tuesday of November in America, and that means one thing: Election Day. Though it does not, perhaps, hold the same gravitas as a year ago, HBO is capitalizing on the day to premiere the documentary By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. The film airs tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Look for it to be added to HBO’s on-demand lineup later this week as well.

Even though the film strikes a feel-good tone, it may very well drop on a highly inopportune time for the Obama camp. Tensions linger of his Nobel Peace Prize award, the battle for healthcare reform becomes further entrenched, and a decision on strategy in Afghanistan looms. The celebratory tone of the piece may have been appropriate one year ago. As reality sets in today, that enthusiasm is harder to muster for some critics.

HBO’s p.r. for the documentary describes it as such:

Nearly a year before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency on Feb. 10, 2007, filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams began to roll cameras on the young senator. Over the next 19 months, they found themselves traveling all across the country, chronicling the daily ups and downs of the campaign trail as experienced by Obama, his family, his staff and volunteers. While Obama’s meteoric rise to the White House has been well documented in the press, few have witnessed the behind-the- scenes story of the passionate campaigners who helped a young African-American freshman senator attain the nation’s highest office.

Landing this opportunity involved some good fortune and providence along the way. Only when actor Ed Norton, who later signed on to produce the film, spoke on behalf of Rice and Sams, did the Obama campaign take notice and open the door. Even then, the task at hand was never easy. The discipline that kept the campaign (mostly) free from leaks, often posed a challenge for access. The Huffington Post notes the following in a profile of the filmmakers:

They got lucky. They wound up with a far more important story than they had dreamed about.

Even though they began filming nearly a year before Obama announced his candidacy in February 2007, being on the ground early didn’t guarantee them anything. They were nearly shut down when the campaign began.

Obama aides like David Axelrod didn’t want Rice and Sams around. He worried about leaks and whether the presence of cameras would cause people to act like they were in a reality show – concerns that proved amusing in retrospect. Access was a constant concern.

Whether you’re an Obamaniac or not, the film does seek to portray an intimate portrait of life behind the scenes in a high stakes race for the White House. That leads to our questions for you: Is this the right time for a documentary of this kind? What has Obama accomplished in the year since his election? Who was the most important person behind the scenes in the Obama presidential campaign? When will Obama’s re-election bid begin?

Check out this clip from the film: