Iowa And Its Presidents
Identifier
F.2005-08-0326
Date Of Production
1988
Abstract
Portrait of the 1988 Iowa Caucuses, including candidates Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Paul Simon, Dick Gephardt, Bob Dole, and George H.W. Bush.
Description
"With Iowa and Its Presidents, Stamets continues to examine political ritual, this time the Iowa primary of 87-88 with its plenitude of candidates. It begins with a middle aged Black woman who seems to be seated in a bus station waiting area telling us she is running for President. She is a total unknown, but she has certain little pat phrases down, the dead giveaway of campaign rhetoric. But she doesn't speak in perfect standard English. We can't believe that she is serious, or will be recognized if she does try to run. Is she just playing a joke on us? Or is she a sincere but naive person? We don't know, and she disappears from the film at that point never to return, but to seem, in retrospect, no more of a fool, or fooler, than the string of Republican and Democratic candidates stumping for votes in this political pilgrimage.
Running with the media through endless and repeated photo ops, the filmmaker provides a highly edited and interpretive view of events. We really get no substantial sense of the history, development, or issues involved. But, the film seems to say, there weren't any anyway. Instead we see candidates directed by campaign organizers and press secretaries to jog, enter a mall, get a haircut, ride a bike, visit an old folks home, and so forth. Candidates are shown things to view in microscopes and cross sections of hog snouts as the campaign rolls on.
The classic early cinema verité film, Primary (1960, Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker), employed a dramatic conflict narration (Hubert Humphrey vs. John F. Kennedy) leading to a highly charged conclusion heightened by the two candidate’s drastically different styles. For Stamets in Iowa, the candidates are virtually interchangeable. It's not even clear which one is a Republican and which one is a Democrat most of the time. Only two campaigners stand out--preachers Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson--because their rhetoric and delivery vary from the secular norm. The others seem to be summed up on their trek for votes by Robert Dole's plaintive, "What do I do now?" at the end of a staged media event, and Gary Hart's question in arriving at another location, "Which direction are we going?" The politicians seem more like puppets than leaders and talented mostly for the fake sincerity of campaigning." - Chuck Kleinhans, "Documentary on the Margins: Bill Stamets' Super 8mm Ethnography," Cinematograph no. 4: “Non-fiction Cinema?” long version (v. 2.0c); 28 Sept 1990.
Running with the media through endless and repeated photo ops, the filmmaker provides a highly edited and interpretive view of events. We really get no substantial sense of the history, development, or issues involved. But, the film seems to say, there weren't any anyway. Instead we see candidates directed by campaign organizers and press secretaries to jog, enter a mall, get a haircut, ride a bike, visit an old folks home, and so forth. Candidates are shown things to view in microscopes and cross sections of hog snouts as the campaign rolls on.
The classic early cinema verité film, Primary (1960, Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker), employed a dramatic conflict narration (Hubert Humphrey vs. John F. Kennedy) leading to a highly charged conclusion heightened by the two candidate’s drastically different styles. For Stamets in Iowa, the candidates are virtually interchangeable. It's not even clear which one is a Republican and which one is a Democrat most of the time. Only two campaigners stand out--preachers Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson--because their rhetoric and delivery vary from the secular norm. The others seem to be summed up on their trek for votes by Robert Dole's plaintive, "What do I do now?" at the end of a staged media event, and Gary Hart's question in arriving at another location, "Which direction are we going?" The politicians seem more like puppets than leaders and talented mostly for the fake sincerity of campaigning." - Chuck Kleinhans, "Documentary on the Margins: Bill Stamets' Super 8mm Ethnography," Cinematograph no. 4: “Non-fiction Cinema?” long version (v. 2.0c); 28 Sept 1990.
Format
Super 8
Extent
543 feet
Color
Color
Sound
Mag Stripe
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Originals
Genre
Form
Subject
Related Collections
Related Places
Main Credits
Stamets, Bill (is filmmaker)
Participants And Performers
Masters, Isabell (is participant)
Gore, Al (is participant)
Dukakis, Michael, 1933- (is participant)
Gephardt, Richard, 1941- (is participant)
Babbitt, Bruce E. (is participant)
Simon, Paul, 1928-2003 (is participant)
Dole, Robert J., 1923-2021 (is participant)
Bush, George, 1924-2018 (is participant)
Jackson, Jesse, 1941-2026 (is participant)
Hart, Gary, 1936- (is participant)
Kemp, Jack, 1935-2009 (is participant)
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