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“Are you somebody I’m supposed to know?” a passerby asks.
“Believe me, no,” Weiner says.
Like it or not, a lot more people are going to know a lot more about Weiner with this movie.
“Weiner,” the all-access character study of the disgraced New York City politician and his wife Huma Abedin, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday after weeks of speculation about its footage. Ratcheting up the interest: Abedin is a longtime aide to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and the scenes of the press-shy power player seemed to rivet the audience more than the footage of her husband’s political downfall.
“Weiner” filmmakers Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman had remarkable access to the couple — in their home playing with their son, at the campaign office hitting up donors for money, in the car debating whether Abedin should make an appearance. Kriegman was a chief of staff for Weiner before becoming a filmmaker, which helped secure the access, he said after the screening.
It’s hard to say what impact the documentary might have on the election. Clinton’s campaign wasn’t launched when the scandal was taking place, and the movie nods to the potential tension between Abedin’s professional and personal lives several times. Kriegman said no footage of the movie was altered at the request of the Clinton campaign. A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment on the film.
The movie has a theatrical release on May 20 and then airs on Showtime shortly before the Nov. 4 election.
Weiner hasn’t seen the film but has an “open invitation” to do so, said Kriegman. At one point in the movie, after he has lost another election due to scandal and his worst moments caught on tape, Kriegman asks Weiner, “Why did you let me film this?” The line drew loud laughs from the audience.
The movie begins with Weiner’s rise as a young Congressman who became a cable-news staple for his impassioned speeches on the House floor. Then, the well familiar scandal plays out: After accidentally tweeting a revealing photo in 2011, Weiner eventually admits to carrying on sexual text and phone conversations with several women. He resigned from Congress shortly thereafter.
Much of “Weiner,” though follows his attempt at political rehabilitation in 2013. When he announces his bid to become mayor of New York City, for a time it looks like a possibility. He seems to get oxygen from campaigning — there are several scenes of him manically running around parades, kissing babies and accepting hugs. He tops the polls.
Then, new photos emerge, and with them new women willing to talk about their relationship with him. Despite the implosion of the campaign that follows, Steinberg and Kriegman’s access doesn’t waver. The camera is there when aides talk about thoughts of quitting, when Weiner can’t stop watching himself yell on MSNBC (much to Abedin’s dismay), when he has to sprint through a McDonald's MCD +0.68% to avoid seeing a woman he’d texted with (code-named by the campaign as “Pineapple”).
Abedin has been a close member of Hillary Clinton’s entourage for many years — the presidential candidate has likened her to a “second daughter.” But Abedin has maintained a strict personal privacy for her entire career. The first time she spoke at a press conference, she says in the film, was at the conference defending her husband after the second batch of photos appeared.
It was part of the movie’s mission to reveal “the humanity behind the headlines,” said Steinberg.
Many audience members at Sunday’s premiere expressed sympathy for Abedin, who during the worst of the scandal tells the filmmakers, “It’s like living a nightmare.” Other scenes show a shrewd campaign adviser who hops on the phone to “close the deal” with big-ticket donors and instructs one aide to “look happy” when she leaves the building since photographers are outside. “Just a quick optics thing,” she explains.
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