HBO Documentary YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY, Chronicling President Biden’s Turbulent First Year In Office, Debuts October 19.
HBO documentary YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY, directed by Emmy®-winning filmmaker John Maggio (HBO’s “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks) and executive produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist David Sanger (HBO’s “A Perfect Weapon” and the book by the same title), debuts WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19 (9:00-10:25 p.m. ET/PT). The documentary will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max.
Synopsis: Bookended by Inauguration Day 2021 and the State of the Union speech of March 2022, YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY is a front-seat account of the Biden administration’s tense first year, marked by security threats both at home and abroad. Assuming office only two weeks after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, Biden’s presidency entered the maelstrom of an ongoing global pandemic, renewed conflicts with Russia and China, and America’s international standing in decline.
YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY follows the President’s inner circle, taking viewers inside the White House, the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon, while it dives deep into America’s response to a number of unfolding historical events: the effort to immunize a nation against an ever-morphing pandemic, continued divisiveness following January 6th, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the rise of autocratic regimes across the globe, and increasingly adversarial relations with two nuclear superpowers: Russia and China. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 became the crucible by which America’s fragile alliances were measured – and created new forms of nuclear menace. YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY explores each developing situation with chronological immediacy and intimate, unprecedented access to Biden’s cabinet members, tracing history as it happens.
Featured interviews: YEAR ONE: A POLITICAL ODYSSEY combines archival news footage with revealing insider interviews with key players from Biden’s cabinet providing contemporaneous accounts of history in the making. Participants include Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, CIA Director William Burns, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Counselor to the President Jeff Zeints, Representatives Adam Schiff and Jim Jordan, Senator Chris Coons, journalists, global ambassadors and COVID-19 advisors. David E. Sanger of The New York Times guides the interpretation of the fast-moving events in global politics.
Credits: HBO Documentary Films presents an Ark Media production YEAR ONE. Directed by John Maggio; produced by Caroline Cannon and Caroline Pahl; executive produced by John Maggio and David E. Sanger. For HBO: executive producers Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller; senior producer Tina Nguyen.
