From Mark Olsen’s article on June 22:

Once the team was in place in Denver with cameras in hand, Schnack simply had to turn it loose. Maintaining communications was sometimes tricky, as phone service around the convention center could be spotty due to the volume of calls being made in the area. Often the camera crews had to make their own decisions about where to go and who to follow.

“It was something in theory I liked,” said Schnack of allowing each camera person to use his or her own sensibility to inform what they were shooting. “In practice I liked it even more. . . . You needed people who were actually filmmakers, who could make decisions.”

A title card near the beginning of “Convention” credits 11 people with making the film, and that nod to the optimistic idealism of collective action — what a group of people working together can achieve — is the theme both in front of and behind the camera.

Although the film ends with Barack Obama’s speech accepting his party’s nomination, the emotional climax of the movie comes during a speech given by city workers Chantal Unfug and Katherine Archuletta to a group of departing interns. It’s a seemingly small moment that takes on greater significance, as Schnack explained.

“It’s the spirit of the film, both the characters in the film and behind the scenes, the notion of ‘We can do this. Let’s all get together, and together we can make something awesome.”

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