Convention on AllMovie

Filmmaker A.J. Schnack offers a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and hard work that goes into staging one of America's largest public political events in this documentary. Denver, CO, hosted the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and Schnack invited a team of acclaimed documentary filmmakers -- including Steven Bognar, Daniel Junge, Laura Poitras, Julia Reichert, and Paul Taylor -- to help him capture the story going on backstage, with each filmmaker and their crew focusing on a different aspect of the event. In Convention, we follow various officials of the City of Denver, working overtime to anticipate anything that could go wrong or demand their attention; join a team of protestors demonstrating the convention with more good intentions than practical skill; look in on the press corps covering the proceedings, including the staff of The Denver Post and a young journalist who has been on the political beat for a mere six weeks; and follow the crew organizing and staging Barack Obama's much-anticipated nomination acceptance speech. Convention was an official selection at the 2009 Silverdocs Film Festival.