In the midst of Student Government elections, one group of students is working diligently to expose the truth about what goes on.
They are not handing out push cards or donning T-shirts with catchy slogans but are filming a documentary on the electoral process. The group, consisting of four students from Robert McMullen’s long format video production class, has a specific goal in mind.
“Basically, we’re trying to see exactly what is entailed in a Student Government election and why the student body is so lackadaisical toward elections,” said Cory Goodman, a mass communication senior and cameraman for the group.
Director Josh Lewis, a part-time graduate student in mass communication, elaborated on the group’s goal.
“This is not an advocacy video for SG,” Lewis said. “Hopefully, it will be a journalistic examination of a reality that exists.”
Lewis said the group’s original proposal stated the intent was to “examine an election of Student Government at LSU as a microcosm of the broader political process and the pervading voter apathy in America.”
McMullen was optimistic about the election documentary.
“I think it has a lot of potential,” McMullen said. “I think it’s something that needs to be done.”
McMullen said the class’ documentaries, which account for approximately half of the students’ grades, eventually will run on Tiger TV.
“We want anyone who watches this documentary to, in the end, want to go out and vote,” Goodman said.
Lewis said along with voter apathy, the issue of SG’s control of student funds prompted the documentary.
“One of the questions we wanted to ask was, ‘Why, if SG has so much power, do relatively few people care about it?'” Lewis said.
Though the group did not achieve any special access to election proceedings, they did have a special connection. One of the members, Adria DeLaune, currently serves as a University Court justice.
DeLaune said she served as a link between the group and SG, helping the group members contact people vital to the documentary. She also said she thought the group had developed a unique idea.
“We all had an interest in SG, and we decided that because elections were during the filming period that it would be good to do,” DeLaune said. “I don’t think anyone else has done a documentary on this.”
Marcie Maxwell, SG chief of staff, said many people involved with SG were excited about the documentary.
“We feel like there’s so much good we can do,” Maxwell said. She said she hoped the documentary would portray SG’s efforts to be as representative of the student body as possible.
“We need the help of the students with turnout,” Maxwell said.
Lewis said the group aimed not to be activists but to be journalists.
“At the end of the day, our goal, like any good documentary, is just to tell a compelling story,” Lewis said.