A beloved two-term president named Barack Obama once titled a book of his The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. One could say that the first part is impeccable in describing what went through the head of the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and thinking that he could go from the mayor’s office to the nation’s highest office.
The thing is, he came pretty close. In fact, he is currently serving in the West Wing as President Biden’s Secretary of Transportation. He has made history twice now in a matter of years. First, as the first openly gay man to earn delegates towards a major party’s nomination for President of the United States and now, he is the first openly LGBTQ Cabinet member in our country’s lifetime.
Pete Buttigieg’s story is about as compelling as they come for a politician. A war veteran and scholar, who knows eight languages, would have been the youngest person ever elected to the presidency. Yes, he’s done all of this, including winning two terms as mayor of one of Indiana’s biggest cities, and when he commenced his campaign, he was merely 37 years old.
Capturing it all are the cameras of director Jesse Moss for the succinctly titled documentary, Mayor Pete. From the early days of the campaign, through his historic swearing into the Cabinet, Moss’ picture does something extraordinary that is incredibly important in a documentary. A film such as this should be well put together, tell an expertly laid out story that enlightens and hopefully entertains, but more than anything else, it should mirror the subject in its tone, tenor, and sentiment.
Mayor Pete does that, and impressively. After seeing Buttigieg across every news outlet that exists, being the toast of the political world for a searing second there before dropping out of the campaign and throwing his support behind the eventual nominee (and victor), one might think you have a solid finger on the pulse of who Pete Buttigieg is as a person and as a politician.
In some sense, you do, but what Moss’ film achieves is give the presidential candidate something the media fails at miserably—multidimensional facets. People are complicated, layered, and through the medium of film, and Buttigieg simply being himself as the cameras rolled, an insight is achieved to him and his life that only a documentary can capture.
Throughout Mayor Pete, the candidate and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, illustrate why so many successful politicians have a significant other who lifts us up, calls us on our B.S., and in the end know us better than we know ourselves. That alone would have added priceless levels to the story of Pete Buttigieg and his most unlikely of runs for the White House.
The filmmakers have themselves crafted a multifaceted movie in the sense it simultaneously documents what occurred with the Buttigieg 2020 campaign, all while humanizing Pete and Chasten and inspiring others who may feel prevented or scared from being their true selves.
Buttigieg talks frequently about serving his country, all the while harboring a secret that during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would have gotten him fired. His story of coming out to his Indiana constituents while the governor, Mike Pence, was notoriously anti-LGBTQ, spotlights his courage, but also how the man is constantly thinking of others.
That comes through Mayor Pete, almost more than any other aspect in this rich cinematic tapestry.
Buttigieg, like so many heartfelt politicians, only thinks about how he can work harder to lift up as many lives as possible. It’s a calling and one that the current Transportation Secretary lives up to, embraces, and whose story should call to those who before Mayor Pete, didn’t feel it was safe to serve so openly and publicly.
After witnessing this film and experiencing our societal landscape with Buttigieg an open part of it, there should be countless souls who step up to help the world as they come out from the darkness.
Mayor Pete is airing on Amazon Prime.
Grade: A