Primary season was exciting and all, but things about to get scary real with regards to the 2016 US Presidential race. To help ease you into the upcoming antics, both BAM and the Museum of the Moving Image are hosting election-themed film series. Both launch this weekend, just ahead of the circus Trump is bringing to Cleveland next week. And, by circus, we mean the Republican National Convention. (The Democrats get their turn the following week in Philly.)

The Candidate

The series at BAM, entitled Four More Years: An Election Special, runs July 15-August 3, and offers a mix of some of the best narratives and documentaries depicting “the good, the bad, and the ugly of democracy in action.” Comprised of 21 films, the series spans six decades and kicks off with John Frankenheimer’s chilling cold war thriller The Manchurian Candidate (July 15 & 16), which stars Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. Other highlights include the 1976 classic All the President’s Men (July 16 & 17); Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (July 23); Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway humorous documentary about the 1992 New Hampshire primary Feed (August 3); Barry Levinson’s comedy Wag the Dog (July 27); and The Best Man (July 18), which was adapted from Gore Vidal’s play and stars Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. A program is also devoted guerrilla video collective TVTV’s coverage of the 1972 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

As for the series curated by the Museum of the Moving Image, it focuses on documentaries and mockumentaries that employ an observational filmmaking style that places the viewer right in the middle of those wonderful and sometimes awkward moments. Among the films screening are Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed (July 22), Marshall Curry’s Street Fight (July 17), and three documentaries by AJ Schnack, Convention (July 16), Caucus and NomiNation (July 16), as well as mockumentaries Tim Robbins’s Bob Roberts (July 17) and Robert Altman’s Tanner ’88 (July 23 & 24). The directors for the documentaries will be on hand for post-screening Q&As.

The Museum of the Moving Image’s series, On the Campaign Trail: Documentaries and Mockumentaries, runs July 16-24. For additional information and tickets visit the museum’s website. As for the series at BAM, complete details can be found here.