Election Day: Oscar-decorated filmmakers take a novel approach to the political ad

As voters go to the polls this election day, they will do so after a barrage of efforts from many in the entertainment community: the likes of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Jessica Biel holding Hillary Clinton fundraisers; musicians as different as Lady Gaga and Ted Nugent taking the stage to stump for their candidates.

But some Americans will cast ballots after being targeted by a rather different group of creative types: documentary filmmakers.

In a novel project, a group of top nonfiction director this season crafted a set of political commercials, then turned around and aired them in key swing-state districts. The directors — they include Oscar nominees and/or winners Marshall Curry, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Roger Ross Williams, Amy Berg and Liz Garbus — made a series of 60-second pro-Clinton spots across states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Unlike traditional political ads, the spots drew from local people — all speaking, unscripted, about whom they were voting for and why. Each of the 18 mini-films featured a single personality from a given area describing him or herself (with some colorful B-roll) and the reasons for his or her electoral choice. (All of them, it should be said, supported Clinton over Donald Trump.)

The initiative, dubbed Local Voices, is part of an eponymous Super PAC founded by documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch. Hirsch had recruited the filmmakers to craft a narrative he thought could sway voters more than traditional ads could. By using storytellers instead of strategists — and by drawing on real people instead of abstract facts — Hirsch believes the spots could land differently with voters.

“The bulk of political ads has always seemed hacked together, with this ominous booming voice reciting all these things that may or may not be true,” the director said in a phone interview. “And I thought there may be something more effective, more hopeful, about watching real people.”

In a spot directed by Grady (“Jesus Camp”), a truck driver from Warren County, Ohio, said that he always voted Republican but he couldn’t vote for Trump.

Another piece, from Curry (“Street Fight”), had Meg, a nurse and grandmother from Alamance County, N.C., talking about ‎how even though she normally preferred the GOP, Trump’s attitude toward women had pushed her toward Clinton. (The spots, which also appeared on Facebook, could be viewed here.)

It should be noted that the personalities were chosen by a kind of casting process, with Local Voices seeking out those pro-Clinton personalities who would appeal most to independents and Republican voters. The people in the ads often bring a kind of working-man’s credibility — “community influencers,” as Hirsch calls them. (In a set of focus groups, the director said, the ads had higher recall levels than more standard candidate-specific fodder.)

Hirsch says he raised $1.7 million for the Super PAC, with the great majority — about $1.5 million — going to the ad buys themselves. The spots themselves cost only about $8,000 apiece to produce; all the filmmakers donated their time and made them gratis.

Those directors said that they appreciated the effort andfound it helpful for their own worldviews.

“We all live in our own bubbles. Mine is the social justice Brooklyn bubble, where many of my friends and coworkers share my political and ideological values,” Grady wrote in a blog post. “ In this painfully divisive environment that has become the new normal, coupled with this contentious election that is pushing people into an even starker ‘them and me’ world, listening seems to be the best and only way to pop the bubble.”

Hirsch, best known for the ratings controversy-beset “Bully” in 2012, founded Local Voices two election cycles ago, in 2008, during the contest between Barack Obama and John McCain. The New York-based filmmaker said he was moved to start the group after spending time in red states for work (“Bully” and his other works are often set in the middle of the country) and feeling a need for more dialogue and interaction. The decision to recruit top filmmakers was an upgrade he made this season.

Nearly as important as the auteur additions were the ad buys, Hirsch said. In airing the spots, Local Voices mainly targeted smaller areas with high numbers of swing voters instead of blanketing entire swing states with splashy ads — a kind of money-ball approach that sought to reach the most influential group of voters for the lowest possible cost.

For all these efficiencies, Hirsch said he realized that the ads would have a different level of impact than a fundraiser thrown by a Hollywood mogul. But he said he believed that the effect would be additive and, besides, take advantage of the strengths of a different set of film personalities.

“I started this because I and other filmmakers I talked to didn’t know how else to get in the game. We could phone-bank or knock on doors, which would be awesome, but it wouldn’t leverage our skill sets,” he said. “This seemed like a way to match the talent to the game.”

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