Filmmaking | Interviews | Vermont

Archiving a Presidential Campaign

1 Nov , 2008  

Written by Julia Cox | Posted by:

Heath Eiden sold 16 acres of Vermont soil to make his political documentary, Dean and Me: Roadshow of an American Primary, screening this month at the Somewhat North of Boston (SNOB) Film Festival.

Heath Eiden, director and co-producer of Dean and Me: Roadshow of an American Primary, loaded up his car and followed Vermont Governor Howard Dean on the campaign trail for the 2004 presidency. It was only patriotic, says Eiden. He laughs as he admits this, knowing that, especially lately, it’s a loaded word: a reality that attests to the timely release of his film. After six years of fulfilling his patriotic duty, from poring over footage to struggling to find the money to finish the piece, the documentary is finally complete. The result is a film that will serve as an educational archive of the American primary process. Dean and Me will screen at the Somewhat North of Boston (SNOB) Film Festival on November 8th at 8 pm, a mere four days after the presidential election.

The conception of the film began brewing after the events of 9/11, when rumors of Dean’s candidacy circled and Eiden, a Vermont resident, found himself struck with grave concerns about the future of the United States. “Neo conservatives were beginning to take this country in a radical direction,” he says, “from war to economic policy to the dismantling of government. This firebrand of a governor in Vermont sounded like the one person in the Democratic Party who had enough of a backbone to stand up to Bush and his henchmen.” To Eiden, Dean was a rare example of a candidate “who took on the established powers and asked, ‘Can America do better than this?’” and therefore a captivating subject for a film, from an educational and a political perspective.

When Dean announced his presidential bid, Eiden hit the road to document the primary process. Though he earns his living as a features reporter, he had some experience making films. His first documentary, The Democratic Tradition, followed the 1984 presidential campaign of Walter Mondale. His other film credits include The Sioux Conflict of 1862, and Cliques: Imaginary Walls.

While most of the film is shot in New Hampshire, Eiden traveled all over the US to capture moments from national conventions and grassroots rallies alike. The final cut features famous political and news figures such as Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Ted Kennedy, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, FOX’s Sean Hannity, Martin Sheen, and Al Franken, among others.

While Eiden, with a camera as his copilot, drives the physical car that follows the trajectory of Dean’s campaign, he tries to refrain from becoming the metaphorical driver: “We’re in my car, on a road trip.” From there, the viewer is on his or her own. Unlike political documentaries that project the highly editorialized opinions of the filmmaker, “My voice is almost entirely absent from the film,” promises Eiden. “I’m not telling you what to see, what to think: that’s for you to decide.”

Eiden borrowed from cinéma verité style, characterized by lots of stationary shots, a lack of zooming, and very little narration. Eiden recalls Primary, Robert Drew’s classic film detailing the 1960 primary campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, a film that is famous for the first implementation of cinéma verité in the political documentary. “Primary revealed what a huge impact television had on the election,” Eiden says.

Like Primary, Dean and Me exposes the importance of media in shaping the public’s opinion of political candidates. “The film is a tragic comedy,” says Eiden. “It uses humor to show how the system works and doesn’t work.” Eiden pinpoints one of the major theses that emerged from the footage: “Television and media conglomerates whittle down our choices. As media companies combine and narrow their focus, they have an even greater influence on who we are allowed to choose as a candidate.”

Eiden cites the media’s portrayal of Dean as an angry “super liberal” who was incapable of competing with Bush. “In fact, Dean was a very centrist democrat who wasn’t overly concerned with being liked. He challenged the status quo.” This portrayal is evidenced by the widely covered “Dean Scream,” a soundbyte from Dean’s speech that played in high rotation on most major news networks, prompting some anchors to later admit that it was overly sensationalized. “As far as this point goes, the film’s footage speaks for itself.”

Along with Eiden, Deanna Kamiel (co-producer and documentary filmmaker) and Iris Cahn (co-producer, editor, and chairperson of the film department of Purchase College) attacked the daunting task of sorting through that footage. With so much material, Eiden says, the biggest expense was the editing process. “Time was the major cost,” he admits. Eiden sold 16 acres of his farmland in order to fund the documentary’s completion. While his grassroots website offered a platform for ordinary people to support political candidates or the film financially, “The website kept the hope alive more than it kept the funding alive.”

Hope, Eiden says, is a common thread that runs from the Dean’s message through to the Obama campaign. “Obama is an incredible candidate,” says Eiden, “but Dean really paved the way, from his message to his grassroots campaign and his ability to organize people and collect small donations through the Internet.” Dean and Me shows that the message of “taking America back” was a hopeful concept generated by Dean, a concept that resonates today in the Obama campaign. “Ironically, people are talking about Dean now as a historical figure who set the stage for Obama. If the Democrats win this election, it will be an Obama/Dean victory,” says Eiden.

Dean and Me has garnered praise from the likes of the National Society of Film Critics’ Rob Nelson and famed historical filmmaker Ken Burns. Eiden just hopes that it will “pay off” – not only financially, but politically and professionally: he just wants the chance to make another film. “It was an incredibly fulfilling process, because this was a film that had to be made,” he says, “as documented history.”

For more information on “Dean and Me: Roadshow of an American Primary,” and its screening at S.N.O.B. Film Festival, visit www.snobfilmfestival.org or www.thegrassrootsmovie.com.


For more information on “Dean and Me: Roadshow of an American Primary,” and its screening at S.N.O.B. Film Festival, visit www.snobfilmfestival.org or www.thegrassrootsmovie.com.

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