After a preview showcase on the International Filmfestival Rotterdam this winter, the Dear Oprah documentary has now been selected for the Dutch Filmfestival (Nederlands Filmfestival) this September. Hooray!
Archive for September, 2008
The New York Times recently wrote about the research of two economists at the University of Maryland. They concluded Oprah’s endorsement and active involvement with Obama’s primary campaign gave the Illinois senator a boost of about a million votes. READ the article here.
This is the first of several extra clips from the documentary that I want to add to the blog (please also check the Low Turnout page for extra clips from the experts we’ve interviewed). It’s from the footage we filmed in the state of Iowa. As you can see in Episode 9 “Youthful beginning” we discussed with young Obama volunteers in Iowa City how they were trying to get more young people to participate in the caucus this election year (which has worked out beautifully…). But we also filmed a mock caucus, where villagers of the small town of West Branch, Iowa, prepared for the real caucus in January. Afterwards we discussed the impact young people could have on changing the outcome of the caucus over coffee and cream pie…
Extra Clip: Iowa mock caucus
We made are journey into a television documentary. In March it was aired on Dutch national television in Europe. Since this week the documentary, in ten short episodes, was launched online on LINK TV, as part of its “Dear American Voter” project. Either WATCH the episodes here on the blog, or on the LINK tv website (http://www.linktv.org/dearamericanvoter). Please also READ how you can help me convince Oprah to become America’s Ultimate Motivoter. Want to know what a “motivoter” is? In the column to the right I hope to answer every question you might have.
A very warm welcome to motivoter.com. As a European filmmaker and world citizen I’ve become absolutely fascinated by American politics. In this blog I want to tell you about our journey we made across non-voting America one year before the now already historic 2008 Presidential Elections.
It was a journey that led us along amazing people like a young single mom in Columbus, Ohio who told us how she struggled and waited in line for 6 hours to vote in the 2006 election, another mom and her son in New Orleans, Louisiana that stopped voting after hurricane Katrina, a retired math teacher in Kansas City, Missouri who tried to convince Oprah to run for president, an amazing little black lady that gave the Obama campaign the slogan “Fired Up! Ready to go!”, a talented young Latino politician in Las Vegas, Nevada, who wants to make Latino people vote through soccer, inspiring young college students in Iowa City who are trying to get Iowa ready for an Obama victory, and other inspiring people we’ve filmed…