The film “Follow the Leader,” tells the poignant, funny, respectful story of three conservative teens with presidential ambitions and their coming of age. Just in time for peak political season, it will tour with a facilitated “unique episodic film presentation with interactive voting,” according to a press release.
In Reality Check Interactive screenings, audience members will watch segments of the film and vote about issues, using keypads linked to their demographic group while a side screen shows the results.
Brooklyn-based filmmaker Jonathan Goodman Levitt said in a phone interview, “We can only heal the divide if we start talking to each other. We self-select our own media. We self-select what our friends curate for us on Facebook.”
Levitt suspects that most Americans do not understand those on the other side of the political fence. “If you ask a progressive or conservative person what the other side thinks, their ideas are not in touch with reality.”
His documentary is nonpolemic: the opposite of “Fahrenheit 911,” “Obama 2016,” or “Game Change.” The film is meant to break both sides out of the “forward-leaning,” Limbaugh-drenched, “fair and balanced” echo chamber that keeps us apart.
“Everyone is completely divided. They have their cliques. … People don’t know what people who aren’t in their club are like,” said Levitt.
From thousands of young people, he chose 16-year-old class presidents Ben (the loyalist from Virginia), D.J. (the believer from Massachusetts), and Nick (the idealist from Pennsylvania). Levitt followed them for three years.
The boys mature and begin to look at the world more deeply. Of the three, one becomes an Independent, one a Democrat, and one stays Republican. Only one keeps his presidential ambition.
