Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2009

Courting Condi will inspire audiences to laugh, sing and dream sweetly about a subject which has been giving many of us nightmares. To look afresh at the rights and wrongs of the US Administration – the water cooler issue of our time -- requires a fresh approach. This was the starting point for an investigation that led to the creation of the form we are using: the musical docu-tragi-comedy. Each constituent genre offers its own tools to tell a gripping story. Through the documentary form, we have told Condi’s biography, charting her beginnings in civil rights era Alabama, through her ascent to power, and giving voice to her supporters and opponents. The musical form harnesses the emotional impact of music and, as in the fantasy sequences in 'Chicago', visualizes aspects of Condi’s life still not known to biographers. The romantic comedy uses the classic quest for love to provide a firm structure to the story. And the tragedy element reflects the Faustian element of the story of a woman whose hubris pushed her into a pursuit of power that led to the destruction of her core values. Courting Condi is neither a hatchet job nor a hagiography on Condoleezza Rice. It is an honest and provocative portrait of a woman who has changed our world but about whom most of us know very little. Our film has followed Emily Dickinson’s advice: “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.” We have certainly shown Dr. Rice’s positive sides - as a virtuoso pianist, a loyal friend and a successful scholar. She is a fearless warrior who obliterated the obstacles that society has raised against African American women. She is an iconoclastic American Dreamer who used determination and intelligence to fulfill her childhood ambition of reaching the White House. Our film also reveals her tragic darkness. An only child, now orphaned, unmarried, childless, and with no significant relationship, she is afflicted with what Mother Teresa called “Man’s greatest poverty”: loneliness. She seems in denial of her own gender and race, and has disappointed women and African Americans by her failure to champion them actively. Her respect for the truth has periodically lapsed, as shown by her complicity in misleading the world about WMDs and the Iraq war. And our revelations that she personally selected and authorized torture techniques will shock audiences. Condi’s ‘co-star’ in the movie is Devin Ratray. Devin is both an Everyman and a naturally funny man. With shades of John Belushi, his absurd quest to win the heart of such an elusive woman is a story that has touched us all – from Dante’s three-volume adoration of Beatrice after seeing her only once on a distant bridge; all the way to lowly Hugh Grant’s courtship of superstar Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. It doesn’t matter that Devin is 29, and Condi is 54. To hell with the fact that she can bench-press 140 pounds while he can barely raise 40. Who cares if she is black and he is white, or that she’s the most powerful woman in the most powerful Administration in the world, while he’s a struggling actor and musician? He believes it and so do we: Love can conquer all.