CNN Films has acquired the North American broadcast rights to Mary Wharton’s Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President, a feature rockumentary about the U.S. president’s passion for music, which helped propel him from Georgia to the White House.
The film, written by Bill Flanagan and produced by Chris Farrell, was to have opened the Tribeca Film Festival in April before the physical event was canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President will now close the AFI Docs film festival on June 21.
Wharton’s film portrays how friendships with Bob Dylan, Gregg Allman, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash and Willie Nelson helped Carter, an unknown peanut farmer from Georgia, gain a national profile and win the U.S. presidency. Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President combines interviews with Carter and archival footage of performances from Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Buffett and Paul Simon as Wharton defines Carter’s use of popular music genres to appeal to voters.
See more at THR.
