Last week the Sundance Film Festival hosted the new Mitt Romney documentary that gives viewers an exclusive look into the two presidential campaigns by Mitt Romney and his family. “[One] thing I need to tell you about the Romneys is that they are polite to a fault. They are extremely gracious people,” said the director of “Mitt,” Greg Whitely, to US News. “So as the couple of them that came up to me and wished me congratulations, I’m not sure I can tag that as an indication of whether they liked the film or not. I just don’t know.”The documentary was produced by Netflix and released on Friday, Jan. 24. The documentary features footage shot over the course of six years by Whitley, including intimate moments in the Romney home from as far back as 2006. The film portrays Romney as a family man and narrows the gap between the public’s perception of “Robot Romney” and who he really is, according to the New York Daily News.“I think it will be helpful for people to see what Mormons are all about,” said Taylor Bramwell, a junior majoring in EXS from Kailua. “A lot of people have questions because he was a very popular candidate for the presidency, so I think it will be good for people to see more about his personal life. A lot of what they see is skewed.”Whitley, after showing friends various cuts of the film, found that the candid scenes he captured surprised and shocked those who viewed Romney the way the media portrayed him. “These were people who mostly were pretty disposed to not like Mitt Romney, and then when they would see this footage they were surprised,” Whitley told US News on Jan. 23. “There was a gulf between how he was publicly digested and the footage that I got. I think that’s probably the secret sauce to the movie I made.”Romney was aware of his weaknesses as a Republican candidate, but knew it would ultimately give him an identity he would be proud to represent for the rest of his life. “When this is over, I will have built a brand name,” said Romney, as quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “7 Things We Learned from the Mitt Romney Sundance Doc” by Logan Hill. “Everyone will know what I stand for,” said Romney.Chelsea Owens, a senior majoring in EXS, agreed, saying, “I hadn’t actually heard about it, but it would probably be an interesting movie and good to see a more in depth perspective.”
Writer: Hailey Gardiner ~ Multimedia Journalist
