Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series as its pre-season kickoff special tonight, Thursday, September 18: BRONX OBAMA
Ryan Murdock’s portrait of a presidential doppelgänger premiered at this year’s True/False. It has gone on to screen at AFI Docs, Montclair, Traverse City, Hot Docs, and the upcoming Ambulante CA, Calgary, Bergen, and American Film Fest of Poland.
Louis Ortiz didn’t have a particular interest in politics until the 2008 presidential election. Like many others galvanized by Barack Obama’s campaign, Louis held hope that the young politician would make history – but his reasons were a little more personally-motivated than most. The unemployed single father bears a remarkable resemblance to the Chicago senator, and he saw an opportunity to make money to support his daughter’s education as a full-time impersonator. Murdock’s alternately funny and poignant film follows his affable subject during Obama’s 2012 campaign, as he partners with other professional political lookalikes to up his game, getting the President’s speech patterns, gait, and personality just right as he hopes for another four years in this most unusual career.
what (not) to doc 