Bronx Obama is a touching story of a man who tries to grab the American Dream the only way he sees possible; impersonating President Barack Obama.
Director: Ryan Murdock
Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 59 mins
Told through real footage, Bronx Obama follows the surreal story of unemployed Latino Louis Oritz who becomes an Obama impersonator in order to try to capture the elusive American Dream.
As his career progresses, Oritz begins to question his ‘dignity, pride and integrity’ as he spends months away from his daughter for a job that, by the end, he does not enjoy.
The documentary, which starts from Obama’s first election through to his re-election, is an interesting look at how stressful a comedy act is and how much pressure they are under.
There are more or less two sides of the documentary, one that follows Oritz as he travels around the country with a team of other impersonators of political figures.
The second side looks at his daughter who is coping with her father being away all the time, and through the use of real footage and interviews with Oritz and his daughter, we begin to learn that Oritz wants to be himself again.
What was interesting about the documentary was that there is a business and comedy shows that focus entirely on political impersonations and makes you wonder whether that would have the same effect in the UK or other countries.
Honestly, it is hard to imagine someone impersonating Prime Minister David Cameron unless it was purely to mock him, whereas Oritz seems to really value Obama.
One scene that really stood out was when he visited his daughter during one of her basketball games, as well as the results of the 2012 election.
This scene was particularly brilliant through the use of the juxtaposition of the basketball score and the percentage of each candidate increasing and with Obama winning the election again and Oritz daughter winning her game.
At the end of the documentary, we get to see what each person is now doing and Oritz has recently appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain showing his uncanny and striking similarities of the most powerful man in the world.
Directed by Ryan Murdock, and with music from Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, the documentary is a touching story of one man’s attempt to grab the American Dream without losing his morality.
Bronx Obama will be available for UK audiences soon.
Watch Bronx Obama in action here:
You can watch the tim for yourself on Vimeo on Demand in the UK here:
