Following “Frontrunners”

Televised debates, negative campaign ads, strategically selected vice-presidential running mates—all seem more like fodder for the 2008 Presidential race than a high school affair. Enter New York’s Stuyvestant High School.

A documentary called “Frontrunners” chronicles four students pursuing the much-coveted prize of Student Union President, including current Harvard sophomore George Zisiadis ’11. Move over Emma Watson—there’s a new movie star in town. “We were interested in the sport of politics, and wanted to do a light and funny take on it,” director Caroline Suh says. And Stuyvesant, with its exceptionally elaborate election process and high achieving student population, appeared the perfect choice.

Unsurprisingly, candidates include the head cheerleader, the basketball player, and Mr. Popularity. Then there’s Zisiadis, a student with a reputation for eccentric social experiments, including the curtained lounges he arranged beside his locker.

“I like to think it was like Obama’s campaign in that my strategy was to appeal to people beyond my friends,” he reflects modestly of his campaign.

Like the nationwide election, gender and race came into play as well, especially in the selection of VPs.

“He would always say that I wasn’t the most strategic choice. There’s this joke at Stuy that you have to choose an Asian running mate,” says Marta Bralic ’12, who was vice president to another candidate that year. She is not Asian.

While neither Zisiadis nor Bralic are currently active on the Harvard political scene, both consider politics a future career option.

So, would Zisiadis make for a good president? Suh certainly thinks so. “I can help George do his Youtube videos.”

Set to premier at the Film Forum on Oct. 15, the documentary will show at Harvard Square’s Brattle Theater starting Oct. 24.