Film probes youthful Obama idolatry

A film that raises questions about the kind of youthful idolotry that helped elect Barack Obama will kick off this year’s edition of the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival (June 22 – 26, www.dwiff.org) The screening is by Mexican director Gerardo Del Castillo Ramirez now residing in Barcelona.....The film is called 1/20 which is the date of Obama’s inauguration. In a trailer the film blares a headline saying, “On 9/11 a Part of America Died. But on 1/20 it was Reborn.” Or so a lot of people – including those featured in the film – thought. “It is the 1/20 generation,” the director says.....The film takes both a sympathetic and critical look at youth’s desire to elect Obama and bring about “Hope and Change” after the unpopularity of the Bush administration. It’s based on a script by Matthew Roth. Though a Mexican living in Spain Ramirez says youth across many nations were swept up in the Obama euphoria. “I never see people adopt a flag so quickly like Obama´s,” he told WDF.....The film’s scenes depict characters who are extremely idealistic with others who scoff that promises – not just Obama’s but any politician’s – are illusory. ”Nobody knows anything about him,” one character says. Another proclaims, “Free health care for all!” Another headline blares: “The 1/20 Generation Has Run Away from its Teachers. But Where will it Run to?”.....Ramirez says it’s usually ”easy to convince” people with political promises but in the case of Obama he did not even “promise a lot actually” especially compared to other historical figures.....Ramirez acknowledged Americans wanted to see “a light for ending the world’s bad, I don’t understand very well why, not because I believe that some other politician was better, not at all, I’m talking about how the American people build its icons”.....Even In Barcelona, he said, youth “supported Obama more than so many local politicians, I just don’t understand, maybe they have so many TV or Play Station hours”.....The film's first screening is June 23 at 7 pm.