Appropriately hosted at the Supreme Court of New York, the premiere of Vice and HBO’s collaborative effort was a hopeful event.
The film, Fixing The System follows President Obama during his visit to a prison, the first sitting president to do so. Vice, a publication, landed the rights to Obama- they had unfettered access to the president during this time. They worked the cameras and amassed considerable content, in quiet moments of the president alone as well as grand gestures and expansive speech. Even the delicate moments in which Obama spoke with inmates. The flip side, inmates’ families were also interviewed by Vice without the knowledge of inmates themselves, revealing a fascinating yet very real disconnect from the real world, a world to which the inmates must return. The story is revealing and a breakthrough worth celebrating.
The evening started with a screening (which was not the first screening ever – the film was shown at the prison President Obama visited as well as a private showing at the White House) then guests were led to the grand atrium, where guards dotted the upper levels, and drinks were shared and conversation was had. In attendance, Keira Knightley and many cast members from The Wire in addition to the DA of Brooklyn and many government and activist officials.
I caught up with the producer, who said the film was done in only seven weeks, and the cast was assembled effortlessly after the story, and the urgency, became evident.
The documentary debuts Sunday, September 27 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
