R.J. Cutler on Film & Television: A Retrospective

Sunday, August 9: The Theatrical Documentaries

Sunday, August 9, 2009
1:00 pm
Los Angeles

The War Room (1993) – 1:00 pm
Producer
After spending weeks trying to gain access to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, we had all given up. The Democratic National Convention was starting in two days, and despite gargantuan efforts, we couldn't even get a return call from the campaign. The entire filmmaking team (my producing partners Wendy Ettinger and Frazer Pennebaker and our directors DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus) had all wished each other well and had left New York City for various summer retreats. Exhausted, I stayed in New York City, and after firing off a desperate last-ditch telegram to Little Rock, I fell asleep on the production office floor. An hour later, the ringing phone woke me up. It was George Stephanopoulos. "George!" I cried out (we had never met). "Where have you been?" For the next fifteen minutes he fended me off as I explained all of the reasons why a film about Bill Clinton's presidential campaign had to be made, especially one to be directed by Penny and Chris. He acknowledged that it was a great idea, and that it would make a great film, but it was his job, he explained, to keep such a thing from ever happening. "Okay," I finally said. "You can't give us access to Governor Clinton? How about if we just follow you around?" There was a pause. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.
(90 minutes)

A Perfect Candidate (1996) – 3:00 pm
Director/Producer
At my tenth college reunion I ran into my old friend David Van Taylor, whose underappreciated masterpiece Dream Deceivers was one of the reasons I started thinking about making documentaries in the first place. I filled him in on The War Room, which was deep in post-production. At that point he told me that if I thought the Bush/Clinton/Perot campaign was something, I should wait until 1994 when Oliver North was going to run to be U.S. Senator from Virginia. "Why don't you make a film about it?" I asked. "I'll do it," he responded, "if you'll do it with me." We started shooting the following January. (95 minutes)

Photo: Actual Reality