Producer, Anant Singh announced today that the documentary feature Barack Obama: People’s President produced by South Africa’s Videovision Entertainment, will be broadcast on the Ion Television Network in the United States on Sunday, 17 May 2009 at 18h00. Barack Obama: People’s President is produced by Singh; produced, written and directed by Danny Schechter (Countdown to Freedom: The Ten Days that Changed South Africa, Viva Madiba: A Hero For All Seasons) and Executive Produced by Sudhir Pragjee, Sanjeev Singh, Helena Spring and Rory O’Connor.
Barack Obama: People’s President went where the major television networks did not go – inside the organizing effort of a political leader who was himself a masterful and experienced community organizer. The film shows how President Obama’s campaign mantra of “Yes We Can” became “Yes We Did” astonished Americans and excited world opinion. It tells how he inspired and organized millions of new voters to support him, and how brilliantly the internet was used as a communications and networking tool as part of the campaign. The film goes inside the grass roots campaign and also speaks with activists, journalists and political leaders like former US presidential candidate, Rev. Jesse Jackson, South Africa’s Desmond Tutu and Mandela’s co-accused, Ahmed Kathrada who took Obama to Robben Island.
Producer, Anant Singh commented, “We are thrilled that Ion will be broadcasting Barack Obama: People’s President in the United States this Sunday. It certainly is a coup for us as a South African company that produced this amazing account of President Obama’s campaign. It is also significant that Barack Obama: People’s President will be broadcast on the 55th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court Ruling on the Desegregation of Schools, a decision which changed America and impacted on race relations and the education system in the United States.”
“This is an amazing story that most of the media missed,” says Emmy Award winner Schechter, who has made twenty acclaimed feature-length documentaries. “As a former community organizer myself I decided to reach out to the unknown people, to the young and old alike who made the difference in innovative and creative ways. These were key to Obama’s victory as he has acknowledged many times.” Schechter is a former ABC Newsman and is popularly known as The News Dissector.
Barack Obama: People’s President is a Distant Horizon and Videovision Entertainment production of a Danny Schechter Dissection / Globalvision Film. It is Executive Produced by Sudhir Pragjee, Sanjeev Singh, Helena Spring and Rory O’Connor and Produced by Anant Singh. The film is Written, Produced, and Directed by Danny Schechter.
