Documentaries: How effective can they really be?

Photo credit:www.hollywoodreporter.com

On August 24, 2012, “2016 Obama’s America,” a documentary filmed by the Academy Award winning producer Gerald Molen, was released worldwide in theatres. The film is about Dinesh D’Souza, New York Times number one bestselling author, who goes across the world to find answers about Barak Obama’s past and how it will affect America’s future. The movie itself is designed by D’Souza to answer the question “‘If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016,’” quoted from D’Souza’s official website.

The movie features Obama’s half-brother, George Obama, a Nairobi citizen, who, with the help of D’Souza, agreed that President Obama did not do enough for his own family. This later turned into the issue of how he could do enough for his own country, if he wasn’t even willing to do for his own family.

“So I don’t expect Obama to change.  I have argued in my book “Obama’s America,” and implied in my film “2016,” that he cannot change.” – Dinesh D’Souza

The movie also features the origins of President Obama’s motives. As expressed in Dinesh’s 2010 book, “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” Obama’s rage “is not motivated by the civil rights struggles of African Americans in the 1960s—those battles leave him wholly untouched. He is not motivated by the socialist or Marxist propaganda that hypnotized a whole generation of wooly–minded academics and condescending liberals—those concepts also leave him cold.” Instead, he is motivated by a hereditary idea of an “anticolonialist rage” his father had against a Western dominance. A Western dominance in which Dinesh thinks Obama leads today.

In an article, written for Fox News by D’Souza, D’Souza implicates his view of the president, and how that view is not a pleasurable one. D’Souza says things such as “George’s tragic situation exposes President Obama as a hypocrite,” and even calling the president an “active animus.” According to an interview USA Today, conducted with the author himself, “D’Souza clearly enjoys getting to know George Obama and at one point during the interview …he jokes that America elected the wrong Obama to be its president.” However, as a republican, D’Souza may be a little bias all because he doesn’t agree with the president’s political views.

With the presidential election drawing near, two years after the book and a few months after the movie, speaking on the same issues as the movie, were released, how would this affect the results? Some individuals think the movie will not have an effect on Election Day.

“I don’t think the movie would have affected any results because people have their own ways with dealing with certain situations, and making this documentary was D’Souza’s way of dealing with the fact that someone he doesn’t like may represent him,” said Dennis White, senior biology major at Valdosta State University.

Another student at Valdosta State University had a similar opinion.

“I think the only way it would have affected voting is if people have actually seen the movie. Most people in Georgia have never even heard of the movie before so I doubt it would have affected our votes,” said Amanda Stafford, a senior education major, “For another example, the movie has hit in Texas, but since Texas is a republican state any way it probably had no effects on their votes either.”

However, according to ABC News, Texas took well to the movie. A regional theatre in Houston took $36,000 alone the first three nights the movie was shown. Even the Governor of Texas, Gov. Rick Perry, tweeted about how amazing the movie was, “this summer’s must-see move!”

The movie has actually earned up to $33.5 million at the box office, according to Examiner by November of 2012. With this being said, the movie would have to attract the attention of a significant amount of people, in turn affecting at least a few of their votes and opinions on the current President.

With the slogan “Love Him Hate Him You Don’t Know Him” it is clear that the filmmakers of this movie tried to release a negative connotation about the current president of the United States, Barak Obama, with the image of not being able to support or build a nation due to his own past built a rocky path for President Obama.

“The real Obama is a man shaped by experiences far different from those of most Americans; he is a much stranger, more determined, and exponentially more dangerous man than you’d ever imagined” – Dinesh D’Souza

In return to the movie and other statements released about the president by Dinesh, Obama’s campaign has released a statement dismissing the declarations and allegations made by the film. They were quoted by the Huffington Post saying the movie was “‘an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear the president.’”

To learn more about the film visit the official website at http://www.2016themovie.com.

To learn more about the book visit Dinesh D’Souza’s professional website, http://www.dineshdsouza.com.