Open Call: Pitch Reels

The Pitch:

To run for the highest office in the United States, one’s motivation to succeed must withstand incredible obstacles that would stop all but a select few citizens. Presidential candidates endure intense media scrutiny, may find their campaigns in deep financial trouble despite spending their own fortunes, and must spend virtually all twenty-four hours of the day vigorously charging forward with little sleep and weakened voices. Family members of candidates put their own lives on hold despite serious hardship or illness to vigorously campaign on behalf of their loved one and are themselves subjected to intense media scrutiny. Young family members must grow up quickly in the years of the campaign and the potential presidency.

For most candidates, the virtually unstoppable drive to succeed in their campaigns must eventually come to a disappointing end. In some cases, as in recent presidential elections, candidates come so agonizingly close to the presidency only to be denied. I can only imagine how devastated a candidate must feel when their emotional roller coaster ride reaches an abrupt halt.

On January 30th, 2008, John Edwards quit his second bid for the presidency with his wife Elizabeth and their three children at his side. Edwards had built his campaign on a platform of ending "Two Americas": one for the powerful, and the other for the rest. "This is the cause of my life," he said, most likely influenced by his roots as the son of textile mill worker. Although Edwards came in second in Iowa, he placed third in the following three contests with the especially difficult loss in his birth state of South Carolina which he had won in 2004. It seemed that voters were no longer responding to his message of fighting poverty.

On his way to make his campaign-ending statement, Edwards drove by a highway underpass, stopping to talk to a homeless woman. As he was leaving, she asked him never to forget the plight of those struggling in America. "We will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you," he said, pledging to continue his campaign-long effort to end "Two Americas." After his campaign-ending statement, Edwards set off immediately to work with Habitat for Humanity.

I propose to make a short narrative film titled "Two Americas," inspired by that encounter between John Edwards and the homeless woman. Through a dramatization of the encounter, the film will examine how a presidential candidate comes to terms with the failure and disappointment of his campaign to end poverty and how the chance encounter might impact the lives of both the candidate and the homeless woman.