PACmentality
‘I thought the film would be about how Super PACs work, and how they’ve affected modern American politics – which it still is, to a certain extent. But what I realised we had, after a couple of months, was the backstory behind why Carson was running.’
LUKE WALKER
Originally intending to chronicle the journey of American presidential candidate Ben Carson, writer/director Luke Walker instead found himself capturing the complexities of US electoral fundraising. Elizabeth Flux speaks to him about the six months he spent observing the machinery of the 2016 campaign, the rise and fall of a political figure, and how these shaped his resulting film, PACmen.
During the 2016 American presidential race, Ben Carson was the no-name underdog who looked, for the briefest of moments, as though he was going to surprise everyone and come out on top – until it all came tumbling down. As Carson’s campaign crumbled, writer/director Luke Walker was there, documenting how the shadowy figures who had been pulling the political strings all along scrambled to find someone new to throw their weight behind.
His observational documentary, PACmen (2017), was a challenge to make: Walker watched but could not participate in what turned into a truly bizarre devolution of a campaign and a disquieting snapshot of the flaws of the American electoral system. As filmmaker, he was obliged to be a fly on the wall: ‘You
