Mr. President

Sunday December 28, 2008 at 8 pm ET on CBC Newsworld

As we try to understand what it means to be president of the United States, one of the increasingly powerful influences is fiction, in particular the hundreds of hours of TV and movies that have made "stars" of the men and women who work in the Oval Office.

In 2008, the election of the President of the United States will have effects beyond America's frontiers and will influence future world events in far-away countries. What problems will this new President face? How will he react? And what will he (or she) look like?

Hollywood has fictionalized the lives of numerous real presidents and created dozens of imaginary ones (over 60 films in the last 15 years alone). Recently, Mr. (or Madam) President has become an international star thanks to TV series (West Wing, 24, Commander-in-Chief). Combining clips from films and TV series, archives, interviews (historians, journalists, actors, directors, screenwriters, speechwriters and political analysts), and footage from key Presidential locations, this documentary explores the resources and recipes behind this "presidential factory" and examines various interconnections between political life and "presidential fiction."

Mr. President was produced by Serge Lalou and Mark Edwards in coproduction with Les Films d'Ici - ARTE France.