Barack Obama: Great Expectations

This documentary series draws a balanced and well-documented assessment of Barack Obama’s first term. If his election will clearly go down in history, his first term has been a very tough one!

This film is an epic tale of Barack Obama's White House battles. Since taking office, Obama has had to confront economic crisis as well as an opposition determined to discredit him and destroy his agenda. Obama has been forced to adapt his governing style, and to rein in his ambitions for change. These four years crystallize the very nature of the political machine in representative democracy. What happens when the best speeches and best of intentions meet up with the unforgiving reality of economic recession and relentless political opposition?

The film takes us behind the scenes of those battles using interviews with Barack Obama’s main advisors and leading political analysts led by James Traub, political journalist for the New York Times Magazine.

The exclusive footage of the White House and the Obama administration from NBC News Archives are not simply historic banners but are also allowing us to walk the halls of the White House, backstage with the President of the USA, capturing the man, his solitude under pressure and his ease at combat.