And I wanted to tell this underdog story of seeing this family take this opportunity and turn it to their advantage.īecause at first, the whole world hated them. It just seemed like an amazing opportunity to tell the story of 2020 and use this press conference as sort of an analogue for how crazy the year was, how divisive the election had been for so many people – it's probably the most divisive election in my lifetime, at least. What compelled you to film a documentary about, of all things, a press conference at a landscaping company? Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Keep reading for the rest of our conversation with the "Four Seasons Total Documentary." Watching Trump's presidency end in front of a garage door next to some coiled yellow hose, he observed, "was kind of like the emperor-has-no-clothes moment for the Trump campaign, you know? It just sort of like it let us finally peek behind the curtain and see reality for what it was." To Stoudt, the press conference at Four Seasons was an appropriate bookend to a presidential era that began with a game show host descending a golden escalator. His main emphasis is on the people who said yes to a campaign's request to host an event on its premises, and their amazement that they became part of a larger story. ![]() But as the director insists, that's the least important part of the story. Within that time up Stoudt and his subjects, including journalists who covered the campaign and the event, clear up many commonly held misconceptions about of how and why it happened. The piece may be more of an episode about an episode than a documentary, but its economic runtime doesn't take away from its worth. Giuliani's ceaseless rambling expanded a show about nothing to 37 minutes and 21 seconds. That plucky tone also informs Stoudt's approach, starting with the fact that at around 28 minutes long, this documentary is appreciably shorter than the press conference that inspired it. They are the reason Four Seasons Total Landscaping t-shirts became last spring's hipster fashion must-have. The landscaping company's salvation came in the from of retaking the narrative, making themselves the epicenter of the joke. It also tells the story of how Four Seasons turned around a situation that nearly destroyed the livelihood Siravo built over 28 years from the ground up. RELATED: The Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle is finally getting the documentary treatment it deserves Don't let its tongue-in-cheek title throw you – it is an entirely serious if good-humored breakdown of how the press conference came to be and how it impacted this locally owned business, presented from the staff's perspective. "Four Seasons Total Documentary" is part of MSNBC's push into the longform non-fiction space, with network president Rashida Jones serving as an executive producer on the project. 11:30am!" The famed hotel chain was obligated to follow up by saying it had no relation to the landscaping company, which services local businesses around Philly.īut while subsequent coverage chased the reasons for Trump Campaign's strange choice for its campaign's final gasp – the election was called for Joe Biden mid-Giuliani meltdown – the Four Seasons staff and its owner, Marie Siravo, were abandoned to face a barrage of hateful voicemails and online harassment for hosting the event. 11:00 a.m." Then he posted a correction: "Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Hours later, that moment became part of a ridiculous press conference that transformed a small family-owned landscaping business into a meme and local landmark.Īs a reminder, former-President Trump kicked off the foolishness by tweeting, "Lawyers News Conference Four Seasons, Philadelphia. "When it was happening, I just thought it was just one of the funniest things that I've ever seen," he told Salon in a recent phone interview. ![]() ![]() One year ago " Four Seasons Total Documentary" director Christopher Stoudt happened to be at home when his roommate's brother, the director of sales at a Philadelphia-based landscaping company called Four Seasons, texted a picture of Donald Trump's surrogate Rudy Giuliani sitting in a drab office behind a nameplate that said "Boss Lady."
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