Hot off her Marriage Story Oscar win, Laura Dern “returns” to TIFF – virtually – as a producer of the documentary The Way I See It. The film spins the camera back around at former Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza, and marks Laura’s first producer credit on a feature doc. She has already shared her “tremendous gratitude” about her involvement on Instagram:
Chronicling the professional highs and lows of Pete’s career as an official documentarian for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, you can feel his passion for his responsibility in capturing these “lasting moments in history.” It’s alluring to learn more about how Pete hovers in a room, how he built his rapport with Obama starting with his first year in the US Senate, and how he worked his way up to more and more exclusive behind-the-scenes access, including but not limited to that now-famous photograph of the Situation Room during the Bin Laden raid.
Pete has stories for days, weeks even, and many of them are quite compelling. According to the doc, his non-partisan approach and admiration of both Reagan and Obama’s leadership qualities and empathy through the “tough decisions, the stressful times…” and the “fun times,” built a sense of lasting trust through his access to the Oval Office. So much so that Nancy Reagan asked Pete to fly with her late husband’s casket, and document the funeral. The film leads you to believe that this photographer is somebody who loves his work, and loves his history, but it leaves a lot of open threads. Instead of detailing the sacrifices made in pursuit of the perfect shot, we get a cheeky story about how Obama convinced him to marry him and his long-time partner (now wife) in the Rose Garden, even serving as the officiant. The film is so nostalgic for that particular era, it uses Leon Bridges’ “Smooth Sailin’” to highlight a particularly cheerful and optimistic time during the first year of Obama’s presidency.
Choosing to focus more on the professional intimacy he built as an objective eye during these two presidencies, it’s hard not to choke up when you see Pete relive what it was like to cover the Sandy Hook school shooting aftermath in Newtown, CT. In fact, it would bring anyone to tears.
Yet by the time the film pivots to what Pete is arguably best known for now – throwing “shade” with his political captions and sharing of images from the Obama era to contrast with Donald Trump’s policies, decision-making, or leadership, the film goes limp and apolitical or wistful, as opposed to being heartbroken or upset. Pete calls Trump’s “fake news” proclamations “dangerous” and says that he bullies people, lies, and does not respect the office of the presidency. That’s about as far as his critiques go, and it’s surprising.
For somebody who can craft such a decisive, evocative photograph – and even spicier Instagram caption – it’s interesting that Pete is so selective and sparse with his words. He later goes on to break down the composition of a Trump-era photograph in the Situation Room, where he dismisses it as being propaganda because of the angle of the shot, but that’s as critical as it gets in terms of a discussion about ethics, imaging, bias or branding. “It looks fishy to me” is as far as he goes.
That’s not to say the documentary is not compelling, but it is only committed to telling a simple version of Pete’s story, and how he transitioned from being a fly on the wall, to a digital thorn in Trump’s side. The Way I See It is Dawn Porter’s second documentary release of 2020, following John Lewis: Good Trouble. The latter is a more successful portrait of a man’s lifelong commitment to social activism, and a political legacy so entrenched with the Civil Rights movement. If anything, comparing the two pieces of work leads me to feel that The Way I See It comes a bit too early, and Pete’s story would be better served by more distance from the current U.S. administration, as opposed to releasing the film less than two months before the election. It does not feel rushed, but it’s all a little too raw – or… maybe that’s the point? I’m Canadian and Sarah’s perspective about the film, through the lens of an American, will follow this review. The film is a great ode to an era many remember as “better days,” though its call to action is a bit muted to serve as a standalone “shady” political message.
