D.O.A.P.

D.O.A.P. (Death of a President) takes the form of a documentary television broadcast following the assassination of George W. Bush on 17 October 2008. This ‘documentary’ combines archive footage and meticulously composed interviews presented in a respectful way. The film opens with a hectic montage in which we see a demonstrating crowd. President Bush, who is portrayed as a sympathetic and amiable man, makes a patriotic speech in a hotel. Outside, the fury of demonstrators explodes. Tension rises, until the horrific moment when the president is killed. After the attack, the film concentrates on the FBI hunt for the murderer. But did the Syrian man who is eventually arrested really do it?
Gabriel Range experimented before with this style of filming in The Day Britain Stopped (2003) about a complete standstill of the British transport system. This virtuoso film received the FIPRESCI prize at the Toronto film Festival for ‘the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth.’ From his fantasy about the future, Range put his finger on the tender spot today. Or as Noah Cowan (Toronto Film Festival) formulates it: ‘Not only do we feel the authenticity of mass-media imagery slipping away, but Range suggests that his manipulation is merely a more radical example of what we encounter every day.’