One Vote, Many Perspectives: New Documentaries Investigate The Controversial 2004 Presidential Election

Because of the lack of verification available, no one will ever know if Kerry would have won if it weren’t for the computerized voting machines, but to many observers he seemed to run such a poor campaign he might have lost no matter what. Steve Rosenbaum‘s “Inside the Bubble” looks not at computer error, but human error, as the viewer is granted access to a world very few people have ever been privy to - John Kerry’s inner circle. Much like the programming code of the Diebold machines, it’s easy to see why his “bubble” of five trusted advisers was kept so secret, and it wasn’t because of security issues. The people Kerry surrounded himself with were by many accounts quite similar to Bush’s unqualified frat boy cronies, and this film seems to support that notion - which would explain why Kerry refuses to watch it, stating, “I think I know what happens.”

One wonders why the filmmakers were granted such intimate access if they were potentially going to be so vehemently against the finished product.  “Getting access is always the difficult part in any documentary,” Rosenbaum told indieWIRE. “But in politics, as in lots of things, people want to tell their story. Once the campaign knew the film wasn’t going to come out before the election, everyone mellowed out and pretty much let us shoot as much as we wanted to.” The results are definitely compelling, enough so that conservative television hosts from Tucker Carlson to Sean Hannity have jumped on the story, showing clips from the as-yet-unreleased documentary as well as interviewing the filmmaker.

Rosenbaum is happy to see the film getting such attention, but is unimpressed with the campaign’s reaction.  “Calling the film boring before anyone had seen a frame makes the campaign look like they’re trying to hide something,” he says, “which I think was strange.  They agreed to let us make the film.  The ending isn’t what we wanted, and once the campaign had lost, asking questions about why is certainly fair. James Carville has said the Democrats have no narrative. I think the film supports his diagnosis - now we need a cure.”

Another new documentary, with the working title “Ohio: An American Vote”, is said to look at the 2004 election from a more journalistic perspective, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, the filmmakers sent 15 camera crews across Ohio to document the last few days of the presidential race, and the results are said to confirm what Rosenbaum captured in his own cameras - that the Bush campaign was helmed by masters of the political game, and Kerry’s people just couldn’t meet the challenge.

There are likely several more films in the works on this very subject, and in the months to come it will become more clear if audiences want to relive the horror of 2004, but given the appetite for political films of late it seems likely they will. ” ‘Fahrenheit’ kind of opened the door to films that could be overtly political,” says Rosenbaum.  “George Bush is an excellent villain. John Kerry had a great sound track. It was a classic good versus evil story, and it seemed pretty clear that it wasn’t going to have a happy ending.”