A documentary crew followed former U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke and his insurgent 2018 Democratic campaign in Texas for a movie set to air this spring on HBO, the premium cable channel revealed Friday.
“Running With Beto” will premiere at March’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, before airing as part of HBO’s slate of 2019 programming, which the network announced at a panel for the Television Critics Association’s winter preview.
The documentary, directed by David Modigliani, tracks O’Rourke’s campaign over the course of a year. The crew gained “intimate access to O’Rourke, his tight-knit family and his team of political newcomers, who champion a new way of getting to know a candidate — one Texas county at a time,” HBO said in a statement.
O’Rourke, who narrowly lost to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in November — while mobilizing Democrats in the traditionally Republican state and generating record amounts of grassroots support — is considering a run for president in 2020.
The film promises “unprecedented access into the personal and political toll that running for office can take on a candidate and a family, capturing revealing moments with his wife and three young kids throughout the grueling journey,” according to HBO. It also grapples with the attacks lobbed at O’Rourke, who notably tried to run a campaign predicated on positivity — though in its later days, he attacked Cruz directly.
Netflix this week acquired another documentary about the 2018 midterm elections, “Knock Down the House,” which premiered last month at the Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles the rise of several women who challenged congressional incumbents, including now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).