For the People, By Alicia Sams and Amy Rice

by Michael Walsh | Published November 3, 2009

Alicia Sams and Amy Rice set up shop in the Oval Office with Barack Obama

One of the main principles that draws us to film is the way moviemaking can represent the ultimate cooperation between people and God, the way both parties are so codependent on each other for a movie to exist—it’s a dynamic rarely found in any other industry. This is especially true when putting together a documentary, where the characters are real and the moviemakers are just as much a part of the audience as they are a part of the process.

Alicia Sams and Amy Rice grabbed a couple of cameras and began documenting the life of then-Senator Barack Obama, an intriguing fresh face in a political landscape normally reserved for a different brand of leadership. As history would unfold, Obama became more than a fresh face—he became the face of the United States. The presence of both his followers and his adversaries grew exponentially, and his bandwagon became the center of our world, whether we chose to hop on board or not. The only thing that never wavered was the presence of Sams and Rice, two women who let the uncontrollable evolve, stood behind their work through endless adversity and put together the first Barack Obama documentary that chronicles the story from those very first moments where possibilities were born.

Shortly before the doc’s premiere on November 3 on HBO, Sams and Rice both took the time to tell MM about By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, the first directorial effort for each of them. Produced by Edward Norton, By the People reminds us that God will take care of the history; it’s the moviemakers that bring its relevance to life.

Michael Walsh (MM): Amy, other than obviously telling the story of Barack Obama’s rise to the Presidency, what goals did you have in making By the People?

Amy Rice (AR): You know, I think that whenever you’re making a documentary, you start out with an idea of what the story’s going to be, but you always give it space to evolve and change. That definitely happened in this case. When we first spoke to his team, we didn’t even talk about Obama running for president… although we secretly hoped he would. Our first day of shooting was on May 11 of ‘06, which was nine months before he announced his candidacy. Those were a critical nine months for us because we got to know his team, built a relationship with them; we went to Africa with them on his book tour. Then we filmed in Springfield and he announced [his candidacy] and they told us we couldn’t film anymore. It was like somebody punched us in the stomach.

MM: Alicia, did you have the same goals? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Alicia Sams (AS): That’s an interesting question. You know the goals are always shifting. With a documentary you’re not entirely sure what you’re going to get. We kind of got all the elements of the campaign that we wanted to get, you know? We really wanted to shoot the big prep. On that level, we did meet those goals. There are certain things that would’ve been nice. As a producer you always want to know what you’re doing, and then following a campaign and a campaign schedule—not only is it completely out of your hands, it’s even out of the campaign organizers’ hands. So maybe what I would’ve done differently was not worry so much about the things I couldn’t control.

MM: One of those things you guys couldn’t control was how the Barack Obama campaign responded to your cameras. Amy, you said it felt like a punch in the stomach when they asked you to leave. How did you get past that?

AR: Well, we never discussed him running for President initially. We just said he has an interesting story, goes to interesting places—we should start following him and documenting it. It was funny because when he announced [his candidacy], we showed up the first day in the Chicago headquarters, and about a week or so after the announcement, Alicia and I went up to [campaign communications director] Robert [Gibbs] and asked, “Can we just get a quick shot of the war room?” And he looked at us and was like, “You know, I don’t think we’re going to have you guys shoot anymore.” We were just blind-sided. We’re like, ‘Why do you think we’ve been following you for nine months?’

At that point David Plouffe and David Axelrod had come on board, and you know, rightfully so, as a strategician and a campaign manager, they didn’t want cameras behind the scenes. It was very risky. So we called Edward [Norton] and the other producers and we all got on the phone with everyone we knew in the campaign, including Axelrod, and I think Edward spoke with Barack. Alicia and I convinced Axelrod to have a meeting with us and eventually convinced him to sit down and let us interview him. I remember I went up to him and was putting the wire on him and he looked up at us and he’s like, “How did I end up here. I didn’t want to do this. You guys wore me down.” But after that interview, I think he got a better idea of what we were doing. So he let us continue to shoot and be involved. He saw it wasn’t just a movie about Barack Obama, it was about the campaign.

Now I look back and it’s also a movie about the underdog. Because when we started shooting, and especially when he first announced, history and the odds were against him. Everybody said there’s no way he could win. What I think is so great was what we were seeing behind the scenes were characters like [campaign staff members] Ronnie Cho, Mike Blake and Axelrod. They just kept their eyes on the prize and persevered in the end.

MM: So Alicia, considering so much of it was out of your control, what was the biggest uncontrollable factor that affected what you wanted to do with By the People?

AS: Well, there were a couple of [things]. One was the logistical nightmare of trying to make sure you were in the right place at the right time. We accomplished all our goals, but there were certain goals I would’ve loved to have accomplished sooner or at different times. The reality of not being able to be everywhere at once was kind of a drag.