Focus Features Docu ‘The Way I See It’ Will Air On MSNBC Before Election Following Limited Theatrical Run

Anthony D'Alessandro
·2 min read

Focus Features’ Dawn Porter-directed documentary The Way I See It, about former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza, will premiere on MSNBC on October 9 following The Rachel Maddow Show, three weeks after the pic’s September 18 theatrical release.

The doc, which Focus is co-presenting with MSNBC Films, will re-air several times ahead of the November elections.

As Chief Official White House Photographer, Souza had a first-person point of view and unprecedented access to the intimate behind-the-scenes gravitas of POTUS, photographing Presidents Obama and Reagan. It was a job that gave him a unique vantage point on the nation’s political landscapes. The doc will track Souza’s journey as a person with top-secret clearance and total access to the President to a person who now uses his art as commentary on the current state of the nation.

His past published works of photographs, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, and Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents, both debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller lists. He is a professor emeritus at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication and was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 2001 as part of the Chicago Tribune staff.

The Way I See It is an official 2020 selection of both the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival.

During the pandemic, Focus has pivoted with its theatrical releases, releasing the Jon Stewart political comedy Irresistible and The High Note in drive-ins and on PVOD. Earlier this year, Emma and Never Rarely Sometimes Always were available on PVOD shortly after the big circuits closed. The label’s Sundance pickup Kajillionaire will be on PVOD three weeks after its limited September 25 theatrical play.

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