Celebrate Inauguration Day with one of the many Barack Obama DVDs available for purchase.
As my esteemed fellow editor Aaron Richter has already pointed out, Barack Obama merchandise may be the one retail sector that’s actually doing well. In addition to all the commemorative coins, fancy plates and bottles of water, the new President is a DVD super-star as well. A number of Obama discs are already available with several more headed our way over the next few months. Out today, for example, is the Biography Channel production Biography: Barack Obama–Election Update Edition (A&E, $12.95) a new version of the 2008 Biography episode devoted to Obama, with new footage from his Election Night speech. Despite the addition of this material, the bulk of the 45-minute film concentrates largely on Obama’s fascinating personal history, from his days living in Indonesia with his mother and step-father to his bold decision to go to work as a community organizer in his adopted hometown of Chicago. His political career, however, isn’t given as much attention as it deserves; no doubt because of time constraints, the episode rushes through his time as a senator in both the Illinois state legislature and Congress and summarizes his revolutionary presidential campaign in about ten minutes. Here’s hoping the Biography Channel decides to expand this episode to two hours at some point–there’s certainly enough material to support a longer cut.
For a more extensive look at Obama’s life of campaign, you might want to turn to another DVD that hits shelves today, President Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey (Vivendi, $19.99), which clocks in at 89 minutes. Narrated by Blair Underwood, the film’s cast of talking heads includes Martin Luther King III, George Lopez (both of whom were just seen at the “We Are One” concert on Sunday) and Jesse Jackson Jr. This collector’s edition release comes with a Presidential Trading Card, a digital download of Brian McKnight’s new song “Yes We Can,” written specifically for the film, bonus interviews with folks like Tom Joyner, a music video for the Bergevin Brothers tune “I Am An American” and seven short documentaries devoted to various problems confronting America today.
The veteran CBS news-program 60 Minutes has put together several Obama-related DVDs this year, including the just-released The Road to the White House (CBS, $17.95), which features reporter Steve Kroft revisiting the many interviews he’s had with Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as many of their aides, over the course of the campaign. You might want to hold off for the definitive 60 Minutes-produced disc All Access–Barack Obama’s Road to the White House (CBS, $19.99), which drops February 10. Hosted by Kroft, the disc will contain four hours of footage spanning Obama’s initial 2007 announcement that he’d be running for President up to his Election Night speech. Also included are numerous outtakes from his interviews with 60 Minutes and his entire Inaugural Address.
Among Obama DVDs already on the market are Barack Obama: The Power of Change (Rockcity and MVD, $14.95) and This Is Our Moment: Election Night 2008 (Chicago Sun-Times, $10.99). The latter presents Obama’s entire Election Night acceptance speech as well as footage from the celebration in Grant Park with commentary from Sun-Times writers Richard Roeper and Mary Mitchell, while the former complies some of Obama’s best primary season speeches between testimonials from supporters like Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy.
Perhaps the most unique Obama-related offering currently available is the 2007 documentary Senator Obama Goes to Africa (First Run Features, $19.95). Filmed in 2006, the hour-long film follows the recently elected United States Senator on an extended tour of Africa, from his father’s Kenyan village to the South African prison where Nelson Mandela was held for two decades to a refugee camp in Chad. No politics are discussed in this very personal journey, which will hold particular interest for viewers who have read Obama’s memoir Dreams of My Father, in which he discusses his complicated relationship with his African heritage.
