Last summer at this time, South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene was a veritable nobody. Today, the unexpected, recently indicted, unemployed candidate for the world’s greatest deliberative body is a news media superstar, despite the bewildered mien — semi-reminiscent of the confused look The Daily Caller’s office dog, Charlie, gives when offered a stick of celery — Greene regularly displays when presented with questions of political significance such as the implications of “cap and trade” or “Middle East peace.”
Los Angeles-based documentary team Leslie Beaumont and David Garrett have decided to capitalize on this most recent Cinderella story. The pair have been following and filming Greene since his primary victory, capturing both the highlights and inanities of this exceptionally unconventional candidate.
Using fewer words than even Calvin Coolidge could fathom and in his trademark monotone, Greene told The Daily Caller that he is excited about the documentary.
With his longest statement of the interview, Greene explained the concept: “It’s just like that, you know, they follow me, get some behind the scenes.”
Garrett told TheDC that Greene’s story was too good to ignore. He said that it did take some convincing, however, to get Greene to agree.
“We thought it was just amazing that an unemployed everyman just sort of took it upon himself to jump into the political arena at the highest level,” Garrett said. “So we came out and talked to Alvin. It took us a couple of days to get him on board but we just sort of set up camp in his hometown in a hotel and we’d just go and talk to him everyday and after a few days of talking he agreed.”
“He has really given us exclusive access to his life during his campaign,” Beaumont added. “Whether it’s here in town or attending a variety of events, we’ve been with him.”
Beaumont said the documentary seeks to explain the enigma that is Alvin Greene. Indeed, the very name of the project is “Who is Alvin Greene?”
“We’ve done quite a few interviews and that is always the question we end our interviews with and everybody has a different answer,” she said.
According to Beaumont, Greene has improved and gotten more comfortable being in the limelight since they first met him.
“I do think he has evolved as a politician — well not as a politician, as a candidate. I think he has come a long way,” he said.
Garrett and Beaumont plan to get the film out shortly after the November election and submit it to several film festivals.
Thursday night Garrett and Beaumont followed Greene to the University of South Carolina’s first football game of the season.
