Political Strategy Heads South

When it comes to documentary filmmaking, access is key, and Rachel Boynton had breathtaking access while shooting "Our Brand Is Crisis." (See review on Page 36.) The director takes viewers into meetings between American political strategists and their client, a Bolivian presidential candidate who hired the Greenberg, Carville, Shrum group to get him elected. The resulting film is an in-depth examination of one election campaign but also the consequences of globalization and American hegemony, as well as the meaning of democracy itself.

"This was not the movie that I set out to make," Boynton says of her directorial debut. "This was the movie that the movie became." Hoping to follow political consultants working in three countries in parallel narratives, she found her first subject, the 2002 presidential election in Bolivia, to be an explosive topic ripe for exploring.

When pollsters and strategists from the American firm signed on to manage the campaign of former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (aka Goni), they found a country teetering on the brink of collapse, with widespread poverty, joblessness and frustration among the general populace. In addition, most Bolivians didn't like Goni as president the first time around, from 1993 to 1997.

With classic American optimism and pluck, the strategists -- including former Clinton strategist James Carville, Stan Greenberg and Jeremy Rosner -- tackled the problem of getting Goni elected using the time-tested methods of focus groups, polling, advertising and public appearances. Boynton's staggering access puts the audience in the room when plans are hatched for smear campaigns, catchy slogans are coined and Goni is nudged toward admitting failures from his earlier term, all for the sake of winning the presidency.

The action unspools with scenes from the campaign trail, including rallies held by opposition candidates Evo Morales and Manfred Reyes Villa. Boynton lightens the mood occasionally through the strategists' gallows humor and Goni's foot-in-the-mouth gaffes. (Catch the look on the reporter's face when Goni tells him that asking the people's opinion about exporting natural gas is like "using a blunt knife to perform surgery.")

Boynton says she can understand why the pollsters and strategists never lost faith in Goni, despite his obvious flaws: "I think it's human to see the role you played as the right role. There's a tendency to see the side that you're on as the right side."

"People are naturally wanting to lay blame. I don't think this situation allows people to do that." Of a South American country still struggling to establish a working government, Boynton says, "Bolivia is one of the most corrupt places on the planet. Things don't move quickly, and things don't move in a clear, transparent way."

Goethe Happenings

On Saturday from 3 to 6, the Goethe-Institut (812 Seventh St. NW) will screen the best short films from two 2005 European festivals, the Clermont-Ferrand in France and the Oberhausen in Germany. There will be three selections from each festival, and film experts will introduce each one.

Also this week is the first of nine soccer-themed films from around the world, from Tuesday through June 12, in celebration of the World Cup in Germany this summer. Tuesday at 4 and 6:30 is "The Other Final," the 2003 Dutch film that pits teams from Bhutan and Montserrat -- FIFA's lowest-ranking teams -- against each other in a game. Post film critic Desson Thomson, Martin Wagner (correspondent for ARD Radio, Germany's public radio network) and a D.C. United representative will introduce the 6:30 screening. Screenings are roughly weekly, with films from Guinea, Germany, Brazil and more. Call 202-289-1200 or visit www.goethe.de/washington for tickets and information.

Anime Marathon

As part of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, Embassy of Japan, Otakorp Inc., and the Freer Gallery of Art host the fourth annual Anime Marathon on Saturday at the museum, Jefferson Drive at 12th Street SW.

The festival includes Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro" at 11, Katsuhiro Otomo's "Steamboy" at 1:30, Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" at 4 and Otomo's "Akira" at 7. Free tickets are available starting at 10:30 on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 202-633-4880 or visit http://www.asia.si.edu/cherryblossom.htm .

-- Christina Talcott