John Kerry, Ready For His Close-Up In Campaign Film

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22052-2004Jul28.html

John Kerry, Ready For His Close-Up In Campaign Film


By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 29, 2004; Page C01


BOSTON, July 28 -- With Steven Spielberg as the guiding force and Morgan Freeman as the narrator, John Kerry hopes to win hearts and minds Thursday night with a 9 1/2-minute film in which he recounts how he "cried like a baby" when his daughters were born.

Aides to Sen. Kerry hope that "A Remarkable Promise" might do for their candidate what the 1992 convention movie "The Man From Hope," by television producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, did for Bill Clinton.

"It's not a political film; it's a personal film," Kerry adviser Bill Knapp said of the work by Spielberg protege James Moll, an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. "It doesn't push political information down your throat like political ads, where you have to drive a message with bullet points."

The broadcast networks are not expected to air the film when it is shown at the Democratic convention in the prime 10 p.m. hour. But Kerry aides hope the cable networks and C-SPAN will show at least part of the movie and that others will view it on the candidate's Web site. The campaign is also considering selling it in DVD form.<snip>