This year the Rotterdam International Film Festival invited me to make a video essay to introduce their screenings of the film Jackie, directed by Pablo Larrain and starring Natalie Portman as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. I made this video essay “Not Another Camelot,” to trace the recent history of US First Ladies, and tries to answer the question “How did we get from Jackie Kennedy to Melania Trump?
The video got a really positive response at the film festival so I decided to publish it online.
Using a desktop documentary approach, I navigate through a series of online clips to show how different First Ladies performed the role differently, reflecting how the expectations for an “ideal” First Lady changed over the past six decades. It also shows the role that the media plays in shaping the ever-changing perceptions of First Ladies over the past 60 years.