You Don’t Have to Work with Your Hands to Be Authentic

My career in documentary filmmaking was extremely short-lived. I entered the New York offices of Globalvision on a Monday, thrilled to bits that I would be fetching coffee for people who had produced for Frontline. Before the week was out, on top of all the yelling, one of them had given me some feedback…by throwing a VHS tape at my head. It was 1992, and bad behavior in the workplace had not yet been driven underground. 

I quit and took the next PA (production assistant) job I could find. My new employer, Jennie & Co., had plans to make documentaries, but shooting TV ads kept the lights on. There, I brought coffee to film sets where, for example, models moaned over the velvety “mouthfeel” of Dove chocolates—before hocking them into an off-camera bucket. I have never been less moved to eat chocolate. 

My stint at Jennie & Co. ended shortly after the two owners got into a fistfight at the office. In a very Bridget Jones moment, one of them came crashing through the paper of the conference room’s Japanese-style doors. “They’re f*ckin’ clowns,” the company’s controller, a no-nonsense woman from Queens, told me over drinks that night. “You should leave.”

By this point, I was less concerned with cracking the world of documentary filmmaking and more focused on finding a job, any job, that I could stick with for longer than six months. A crisis communications agency hired me to write (not to deliver coffee!), and as far as I could tell, no one in the office engaged in casual violence. I decided my dream of becoming a searing visual truth teller could wait.
You know who else wanted to make documentaries when he graduated? Jon Ossoff. And he did! From 2013 to 2021, after going to Georgetown for undergrad and the London School of Economics for his master’s, Ossoff was the head of Insight TWI, a production company that worked with investigative reporters to document cases of ::sit down for this:: systemic corruption. 

Am I irritated that an inheritance from his grandfather enabled Ossoff to self-fund this venture, thereby skipping the coffee-toting phase of his film career? I am not. Exposing corruption does not pay well; I’ve got nothing but gratitude for someone who used a personal windfall in service of the greater good. Also, Ossoff’s documentary experience is a big part of why you are suddenly seeing him everywhere. Unlike me, he did become a searing visual truth teller—and I think it could win him the presidency in 2028. 

If you haven’t seen Ossoff speak at length yet, watch him in Atlanta last Sunday. A few points:

• He knows how to get attention for his message. Over the past week, we’ve all seen the media frenzy Ossoff sparked with this observation about Trump: “He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar.” Ossoff took some heat for the Natalie mention—even from some fellow Democrats—but with all due respect, David Axelrod: this is not 2008. Getting voters, numbed by more than a decade of norm breaking, to pay attention to how deeply off things are in the White House is way more than half the battle. 
• He uses words like a scalpel. For example: “I want the president’s remaining supporters to hear this.” I’ve written speeches for people who are so detached they (true story!) read the stage directions (“PAUSE HERE”) out loud. Ossoff is the opposite: he speaks like he’s come to tell you everything that’s been keeping him up at night and, while I’m sure he has talented writers on his team, he’s very clearly metabolized every word by the time he takes to the podium. You don’t have to work with your hands to be authentic. You do have to share what you truly believe. 
• He’s got youth plus gravitas. Right now, Jon Ossoff is the youngest person in the Senate, but when you start working for legendary Georgia Congressman John Lewis in high school, you can arrive at age 39 with substantial political experience. Ossoff also worked as a legislative aide for another Georgia congressman, Hank Johnson, and he has the fluency—particularly in national security matters—to show for it. Tone-wise, Ossoff routinely goes for the jugular, but unlike Gavin Newsom’s high-profile trolling of Trump, which had a playful air—spitballs from the back of the classroom—Ossoff attacks with a seriousness that meets the moment. 

I’ve been leaving breadcrumbs for several months now as I make my way to the Ossoff bandwagon. I still have reservations. For example, Ossoff does not support Medicare for All and, especially in light of AI-driven changes to the economy, I view universal healthcare as a top priority. But also: I want to win. And more and more, I think Jon Ossoff—maybe more than anyone else in the field*—can do that. 

*Notes:
To my friends who fear that Ossoff’s position on Netanyahu’s government stokes antisemitism: I’m listening. I do not detect antisemitism—or even any carelessness around the subject—in Ossoff’s stance, and I’ve been moved by how he speaks about his Jewish heritage. But I accept that I have massive blind spots. Let’s continue to discuss. 

To my friends from (then Mayor) Pete’s 2019 campaign: I continue to admire Pete Buttigieg with all my heart. But he is still struggling to connect with Black voters—and that’s a real concern. I reiterate: I think he’d be a phenomenal Secretary of State.

To my friends who want to see AOC in the White House: I get it, and I wouldn’t rule it out down the line. I think, while she shores up her foreign policy chops, we would benefit from having AOC in the Senate (step aside, Chuck Schumer!) or—my personal fantasy—as Ossoff’s Secretary of Labor. The next few years will be consumed by an epic power struggle: the tech oligarchs versus everyone else. Data centers (i.e., opposition to them) will play the power-throttling role that labor unions used to play—and that organizing effort would benefit from a whip-smart leader like AOC.