I need some opinions for a documentary I'm preparing to make. It's kind of wordy, but I aim to impress:

The working title of my documentary thesis is called “Candidate.” I am interested in exploring the City of Carbondale’s mayoral race and capturing it from a distinctive cinema-verite perspective. I desire for this to be intentionally unflagging with a Realist, anthropological approach. This means that I will cover the personal and political lives of the four candidates up until the primary and final elections in various situations – at home, work, the campaign office, with the public, etc. I do not intend to explore or promote “issues,” platforms, or agendas for the City of Carbondale, but rather the raw personality, ideology, philosophy, and sensibility of people running for political office in a small American town circa 2007. This also means I will need to develop personal relationships with the candidates, their associates, their supporters (and perhaps family members) to understand how passionate or dispassionate the race is in actuality.

I am considering covering public opinion from residents of different backgrounds – which includes race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. Reaction from university students is also something to reckon with. I do not intend to have a narrow focus. This documentary will run approximately thirty to forty-five minutes depending on the amount of material I have available. Again, my intentions are purely realistic verite and I hope to capture the drama, chaos, and humor of a small-town election campaign that will hopefully encourage viewers to become more involved in civic and social discourse.

Sounds like a cool project. The only thing I see lacking in that proposal would be a guiding thread through the film: it sounds almost like it wouldn't go anywhere.

More interesting than my senior paper though: Existentialism and the rejection of the anti-self displayed through minor characters in Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

Would like to take it from about February - May (which is the swearing-in). The primary is Feb. 27th and the election is in mid-April. The candidates have pretty interesting backgrounds, the current mayor is a pretty good guy, he's doing a public search around town for a bride and has a website, marrythemayor.com I believe. Sheila Simon, another candidate is the daughter of late Senator Paul Simon who was pretty respectable and taught political science at the university. The third candidate is named Pepper Holder and supposedly he's kind of an interesting guy from what I've heard around town and I could probably get an interview with him. The last woman I don't know much about. They're having a meet the candidates day at a local bar on Monday.

Sounds interesting, but like Mickey said, it has the potential to not go anywhere (re: bore the audience) if not done properly. I like the idea, but I think you're gonna need a nicie blend of humor and candidness for a project like this.

Keep us updated on the project, and best of luck.

Definitely won't be boring

I get the feeling that when it comes time for my senior project, it won't make a very interesting contribution to the release forum. =(

Any updates G_V?