Madame President
2025 · 3m · USA
Directed by Athena Kulb
Genres: documentary, musical
Tones: dark, provocative, tender
A music video for blues-rock guitar prodigy Grace Bowers, released on the eve of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Rather than direct political messaging, it documents Nashville community members and small business owners — a shoeshine stand, an auto shop, a bagel shop, a butcher — whose narratives converge on a street block party performance by Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge and country artist Maggie Rose.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Three-minute election-eve music video about Nashville small business owners that makes its political point without naming a candidate — that restraint is rarer than the conceit suggests. But it's still a music video for a guitarist, packaging-wise.
A 3-minute election-eve music video that makes its political argument entirely through Nashville community portraiture, never showing a candidate, is a precise rhetorical move — Grace Bowers as the gravitational center is well chosen. The private-video link concerns me for vault accessibility purposes.
A three-minute election-eve music video that makes a political argument purely through Nashville small-business portraiture — no candidate, no logo, no call to action — letting community work as implicit thesis. The page was private, so I'm reading the metadata's structural conceit on trust, but the restraint described is unusual.
Reviews
A gritty, guitar-driven powerhouse.
Eschews didactic messaging in favor of depicting authentic small-town life.
Celebrates unity during a time of division while maintaining hope for a better future.
Festivals
- Tribeca Festival 2025