Alexander Hamilton was just a founding father on the $10 bill for most, until Lin-Manuel Miranda made the broadway super hit "Hamilton: An American Musical". The show has become a phenomena, making Hamilton and Lin a household name all over the country. And here comes a documentary on PBS, "Hamilton's America" by Alex Horowitz. The film debut at the 54th New York Film Festival, on Oct 1, was attended by Alex and Lin himself, with Tony award winner forHamilton musical, Renee Elise Goldberg and Ron Chernow, the author of the book on Hamilton, that inspired Lin to create the hip-hop musical.
Alex is Lin's friend since they were 19. He started video recording Lin couple years before the show, to document his journey. It starts with Lin starting to move into his new apartment, up in the heights. He goes to Whitt house to perform his first song at the poetry slam, that went viral, And then goes through the process of him writing 2 songs in 2 yrs, to kicking it up on his directors push. The film reflects on Lin's struggles as a writer and artist to come up with his songs & story.
It shows the research Lin and the cast of the show had to go through different historic sites part ofHamilton's lie in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The film also features interviews with the team of Hamilton, Ron Chernow, Lin with The President Barrack Obama, President George W Bush, Senator ...
The screening was followed by Q&A with Alex, Lin, Renee and Ron. Lin thanked his father who is an immigrant from Puerto Rico, and shared how he's been inspiration for his characterization ofHamilton in the show. When Art Shrian asked Lin about "Immigrant's America", to reflect on what's going in the currently right now and what role we could play, his response was "VOTE". In his own words:
“There is a long tradition of using the word ‘immigrant’ as an epithet of distrust of the latest group of people who have gotten here. It is a very easy thing to do for a politician — it happens every 20 years of so, usually happens around the election cycle where you point at the people who got here most recently and say, ‘They’re the reason you don’t have a job.'
"It happened with the Irish at the turn of the 19th century, it’s happening with Mexican-Americans right now, and this is about as virulent a form of this virus as I’ve seen in my lifetime,."
"We have to survive it. And if it bothers you, vote.”
Last, but not the least - The documentary will also feature several songs from the original broadway cast.
Hamilton's America airs Friday, Oct. 21, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on PBS.