Mayor Pete Buttigieg (screen capture)
A film production company is currently shooting a documentary that will chronicle the presidential campaign of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.
The production company, Story Syndicate, was founded by veteran filmmakers Dan Cogan (Oscar winner for Icarus) and Liz Garbus (Oscar-nominated for What Happened, Miss Simone?).
According to Axios, the independently funded film will document Mayor Pete’s “rise to national attention.”
Film crews have been seen filming at Buttigieg campaign events as well as at last week’s first Democratic presidential debates in Miami.
Buttigieg isn’t the first millennial politician to get the indie film treatment, though.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the focus of the campaign trail doc Knock Down the House, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke was the subject of HBO’s Running with Beto.
Documentaries have been useful tools for younger politicians to be a part of creating their own narrative. The Ocasio-Cortez and O’Rourke projects helped establish the candidates with younger voters as the films landed at platforms that appeal to those demographics.
The Buttigieg project hasn’t been picked up by a distributor or streaming service as of yet, according to Axios, as the film’s future is “contingent on the outcome of Buttigieg’s campaign.”
That said, it’s easy to imagine the narrative taking several directions.
As the first openly gay presidential candidate to be a serious contender, that story alone could warrant documenting.
If he were to clinch the nomination, he’d be the youngest Democratic presidential nominee in history.
Or, there’s been much talk of him being considered as a running mate for other Democratic candidates.
All of these could make for a compelling documentary.
But, there’s a long road ahead in this election cycle, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
