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For a significant portion of the United States, Greg BarkersThe Final Yearwill be a challenging watch.
Over the course of the movie, we see them globe-trot and strategize, attempting to solidify their legacy.
Well, so much for that.
Id known Samantha Power for years.
I did a film about Rwanda ages ago.
So we werent close friends, but I knew her.
And you know, I think inevitably, thosejobssort of create a certain amount of hubris.
Because you have access to so much information that the rest of us dont.
I mean, theyre in a bubble.
Theyre in an information bubble, a security bubble.
Its really hard, even with the best intentions, to break out of that.
And so, yeah, I think it was a kind of a hubris, arrogance.
So he would have his finger on both sides.
But generally, like [John] Kerry and Samantha Power, theyre just doing their job.
The election is literally in the background.
They assume shes going to win, but theyre not going through the poll numbers.
So theyre reading all the news that were reading.
And like, okay, you know shes going to win.
Because we just dont know.
And, you know, he had had differences with Hillary Clinton, obviously.
So her agenda was not going to be exactly his agenda.
And then it doesnt.
So its not like their entire legacy now has completely been dismantled.
Parts of it have been.
But I think at that time, in the moment, of course they were totally distraught.
Whats the response people usually give you after theyve seen the movie?
Open weeping about whats been lost?Its really interesting.
The audiences are very different.
Weve screened it probably a dozen times or so, something like that, at festivals and things.
Sometimes its hope and optimism, and people feel energized.
Other times its total despair and theyre kind of like,What do we do now?
We miss these people.It totally depends.
So theres two narratives when people watch it.
Theres the film,The Final Year.
It was an extraordinary moment.
Those little moments are peppered throughout the film.
So people come out of it feeling up, down, however.
Its dependent on their own mood.
Or 10,000 years ago.
You mentioned that you werent expecting the Hiroshima visit to have this particular resonance now.
We started filming in September 2015 with Samantha Power here in New York.
And then by the beginning of January 2016, we were fully up and running.
Props to the bureaucracy.
[They] had sort of achieved a certain amount, controversially in some cases.
Now, everybody thought that the election would go in a different way.
Thats what they were going to talk about.
But its almost … You know, I cut the whole film after the election.
We were assembling scenes along the way.
Its all constructive with knowing that the iceberg is there and the disaster comes.
The whole film is designed to play that way.
They kind of totally missed this thing.
They didnt see it coming.
And so, I mean, we all obviously know what happens.
And the characters in the movie dont.
I mean, I cut it that way.
I had to go reedit.
I was just assembling footage and then …
But I had a feeling of what it would have been like.
Its like the first time we see him in the film is when hes nominated.
And I was in an airport lounge.
I think it was in Laos or Burma with Ben Rhodes.
And its like,Well, if hes the nominee, he could win.
And then I asked Ben, I was like, Are you worried?
Because everything youve accomplished is in jeopardy.
Hes like, No, its fine.
And I later asked him, Seriously, are you guys worried or not?
Hes like, No, no.
I dont pretend to have any insight in that.
Of course, when it went the other way, I was shocked like all of us.
But as a filmmaker, it was great just to be there in that room filming.
And the cameraman did an incredible job framing these beautiful shots without really anybody even thinking hes there.
I mean, I wasnt hoping that Trump won.
But you kind of want to be in rooms like that when things happen.
So it was extraordinary.
Samantha asked me on the night.
What does this mean for your documentary?
I said, I think it just got a lot more important.
And you got that amazing scene with Rhodes on election night where he cant put a sentence together.
Its like a David Mamet scene, almost: all the little clipped bits of sentences.Yeah.
I mean, it was extraordinary, actually.
I was filming it.
Im just sort of … now Im speechless myself.
I just remembered the moment.
I actually filmed that myself with a little camera, with a soundman.
As a filmmaker, again, its like, I felt for Ben.
And yet I knew what we were getting at that moment was kind of golden material for a film.
And he knew it too, I think, afterwards.
I think he called somebody on his team and was like, I did this.
Yeah, I talked to Greg again.
There was a little bit where I kind of like didnt know what to say.
But thats genuinely how he felt.
And so we were able to capture these authentic moments.
What were the parameters of what you were allowed to do with these folks?
I assume there was a lot of restriction.Yeah.
I mean, I knew this going in.
There was no editorial control [on the administrations part].
That that then filters through the bureaucracy.
He was very explicit: We dont want any editorial control.
Theyre savvy enough to know that theyre not going to expect that.
And we would never give it to them.
The biggest restriction was security.
They wanted to verify we never filmed anything that was classified.
Even like an open binder.
You cant actually have a binder in a room when somebody is there.
So when you walk in, basically you cant just barge into peoples offices.
They all have two computer screens: a declassified and a classified screen.
Its things like that.
You cant just barge into offices.
They wanted to watch the feed to see to it we didnt show her secure teleconference equipment.
Which, frankly, looks like an iSight camera from 2005.
Were not interested in showing that.
Once they realized that wasnt what we were about, everything just kind of got more relaxed.
What stuff did you want to talk about with them, but couldnt?
The absence of the drone war is conspicuous.Yeah.
I mean, the drones are all …
The whole thing is classified.
I mean, the Syria debates.
You know, what are wereallygoing to do in Syria.
I would have loved to film those detailed discussions and debates about it.
They werent going to let us.
Because all that stuff happens in the Situation Room, they werent going to let us do that.
I didnt want to film to be a foreign-policy film or a film about these issues.
Which, it turns out, it was.
So, facts are classified, emotions are not.
And so I focused on the emotions, and then got what we could.
And we pushed boundaries and got stuff that I think they didnt expect to reveal.
Well learn more about all that kind of detailed stuff later.
But this is a record of what it was like at the time.
And that was very intentional from the outset.
Just, were ending when they leave office.
This is a hard thing to encapsulate, but what did you make of Obama, from interviewing him?
Just physically, very relaxed around people.
Hes obviously very charismatic and engaging with people when he wants to be.
Hes kind of aloof.
And hes, I think, very self-contained.
I think hes very considered, very logical.
Perhaps to a fault, you know.
I spent a fair amount of time with him.
I didnt want to do any of that, because theyre so used to those kinds of options.
I wanted to be more spontaneous, kind of in the field.
I mean, hes a very impressive man.
A very impressive, reserved, articulate, incredibly intelligent intellectual.
And you might see him just turn it on.
I mean, you kind of see it in the film.
Backstage he sounded like, okay, lets do this.
And he goes onto the stage and then hes like Barack Obama, the candidate.
I mean, he doesnt have to be that.
I think hes also Barack Obama, the constitutional scholar, too.
And I think of Barack Obama, the writer.
Its basically him and Teddy Roosevelt.Exactly.
But I mean, I would suspect he feels the burden of that.
So theres all of that stuff.
Hes a complicated guy.
By that point in the presidency, I think theyd …
I wont say given up, but they werent looking for a solution.
And then he failed there.
So its really a question of what were their priorities in that period.
And a sense that this is what normal looks like.
And should look like.
Hopefully, we can get back there again.
Just because were going through a tough time, doesnt mean that that has to continue.
you might see it.
You know, his top staff.
Like, This is the way history works.
Dont expect to win any battle.
Stay engaged, look at the long view, and stay optimistic.
And thats, just as a message on how to get through life, is pretty inspiring.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
