WASHINGTON -- Two days after Karen Elizabeth Price turned 17, she stood on a red-white-and-blue-draped stage at the North Raleigh Hilton and smiled broadly for the TV cameras. Her father, David Price, had just been elected to Congress.
The election night crowd included many of her friends from Chapel Hill High School, all wearing campaign T-shirts. It was 1986, and to Karen it all seemed "new and strange." It wasn't until later that she and her younger brother, Michael, understood how difficult the election had been for her father, a Democrat from Chapel Hill who wasn't even favored to win the primary.
"I was not really aware of quite what an uphill battle it was, of what a long shot he was. I was somewhat protected," Karen Price said. "I always knew it wasn't a sure thing, but I didn't find out until much later how difficult it had been. ... It's just so, so hard to beat an incumbent."
Now Price, a 39-year-old filmmaker, has created a documentary about Democratic underdogs running for Congress.
"HouseQuake" follows seven candidates vying for seats in 2006, the year the Democrats reclaimed a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. After screenings in Rhode Island and Arkansas, the film had an unofficial premiere Oct. 21 in Washington. A screening is being planned at Duke University.
The Washington showing attracted five members of Congress, 75 journalists and countless policy wonks. U.S. Rep. David Price held court in the cinema lobby, greeting friends and fellow members of Congress.
"Congratulations!" said one gentleman, pumping the congressman's arm. "You've got a grand-film."
Price laughed. But he says that was a pretty apt analogy: Directing a film is a lot like giving birth. For months leading up to the 2006 election, Karen Price and her team crisscrossed the country, taping 250 hours of footage as her candidates held news conferences, marched in parades, and then retreated to their homes with their families.
The cast of candidates includes a sheriff, a disabled Iraq war veteran, and former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler, who now represents North Carolina's 11th district. In 2005, these political neophytes had one thing in common: Rahm Emanuel thought they could win a seat in Congress.
In "HouseQuake," Price presents Emanuel as a master manipulator. Back then he was a congressman from Illinois and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; he's now the White House chief of staff.
"I didn't care where a seat came from," Emanuel says in the film. "It's not like I had a preference for one geography over another, one ideology over another. ... There was no sentiment in this. It was pure winning."
And that's why the Democrats ended up recruiting Shuler, a pro-gun evangelical Christian. These candidates were mavericks, in the pre-Sarah Palin sense of the word. And because many were political moderates, "HouseQuake" is a remarkably objective film about a great day for the Democratic party.
Some Republican opponents were more conservative than others. John Hostettler, a former Indiana congressman, gets face time to preach against "the homosexual agenda." There's also a telling scene with the Hostettler family onstage at a rally. As the crowd sings "God Bless America," Hostettler's two teenage daughters roll their eyes.
But then there's Chris Shays, the Republican congressman from New England. Price shadows Shays as the moderate Republican shakes hands with supporters, stumping for his seat. Even Emanuel concedes, "I go work out with him in the House gym periodically. Chris is a decent guy."
Scenes featuring Indiana Democrat Baron Hill and his family are especially poignant. After a contentious debate, Hill's aides are eager to recap talking points. But Hill's daughter, a massage therapist, tells him to relax and check his "chi."
After the Washington premiere, CNN commentator Bill Schneider was one of many politicos singing the movie's praises. "This is a really human documentary," Schneider said. "That's something you don't see in a lot of these political films."
"HouseQuake" is one of several recent political films made by relatives of prominent politicians. Alexandra Kerry filmed her father's campaign. Alexandra Pelosi followed the 43rd president in "Journeys With George." And Mary Lambert got her sister's female Senate colleagues to tell all in "14 Women."
Thomas S. Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, finds the trend curious. "I wonder what there is to that," he said. "Part of it is access."
Price claims she rarely had to play the my-father-is-a-congressman card to gain access to campaigns. Oddly, it was Newt Gingrich who got a call from Rep. Price urging him to do an interview for "HouseQuake." Most of the candidates let Price and her crew come along because they figured "all publicity was good publicity" and they saw she had serious credentials.
A woman whose career took a meandering path to moviemaking, Price graduated from Duke in 1992 with a dual degree in English and public policy. After working as a congressional aide, she received a master's degree in creative writing at Hollins University, where she took film classes. From there, Price headed west to study at the University of Southern California's prestigious film school.
She went on to work for the Travel Channel, Animal Planet and Lifetime and direct a documentary that aired on PBS affiliates. Like many filmmakers, she plugged away at her own documentary between commercial gigs. As a result, her movie about the 2006 election is coming out in 2009.
Rep. Price thinks his daughter's timing is perfect, in part because Republicans are plotting a comeback.
"The film is more relevant now than it would have been a year ago," he said. "The 2010 election is shaping up to be a challenging year for both parties."
