The other Pelosi.

I count watching the premiere of Alexandra Pelosi's Journeys With George in the spring of 2002 just blocks down Congress Avenue from the Texas State Capital among the most fun moviegoing experiences I've ever had. The Austin crowd at the SXSW screening whooped and cheered as they rediscovered the W who'd slipped behind the curtain of America's renewed reverence for the presidency in the wake of 9/11 - which, remember, was just a few short months behind us at the time, though, in many ways, it already felt like years. The man Pelosi recorded in her video diary of the 2000 presidential campaign was, depending on your politics and tolerance for a grown-up making silly faces at a camera, a buffoon or a charmer; either way, he was an actual human being whose idea of a joke hadn't yet taken on the hubris of reenacting Top Gun.

At any rate, Pelosi is, of course, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and shots of the Speaker-elect's fireside chats with W on the news have more than a few of us thinking back to Journeys. Steve Rosenbaum, for example, who's posted the trailer and a few thoughts. And the editors at Time, who've asked Pelosi for a few words on her mother and her prez: "They actually have a lot in common."

Update, 11/13: Matt Dentler's got a great post on how premiering Journeys helped make 2002 a "tipping point" year for SXSW.

Posted by dwhudson at November 12, 2006 2:45 PM