Fakir Hassen

Johannesburg, May 16 A documentary film by South African Indian producer Anant Singh on Barack Obama's road to becoming the first black person to occupy the White House will air on American television.

"It certainly is a coup for us as a South African company that produced this amazing account of President Obama's campaign," said Singh, whose company Video Vision has won international acclaim for a number of its productions.

"We are thrilled that the Ion Television Network will be broadcasting 'Barack Obama: People's President' in the US this Sunday. It is also significant that it will be broadcast on the 55th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court ruling on the desegregation of schools, a decision which changed America and impacted on race relations and the education system in the United States."

"Barack Obama: People's President" went where the major television networks did not go - inside the organising effort of a political leader who was himself a masterful and experienced community organiser.

The film shows how President Obama's campaign mantra of "Yes We Can" became "Yes We Did", astonished Americans and excited world opinion. It tells how he inspired and organised millions of new voters to support him, and how brilliantly the internet was used as a communications and networking tool as part of the campaign.

"Barack Obama: People's President" also goes inside the grassroots campaign and speaks with activists, journalists and political leaders like former US presidential candidate, Rev. Jesse Jackson, South Africa's Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's co-accused Ahmed Kathrada, who took Obama to Robben Island prison of the apartheid era.