DEEYA GUPTA
JJ Lansing and Trista Ngo, both senior media studies majors, traveled to Milwaukee, Chicago and Washington D.C. to film a documentary on the Republican National Convention (RNC), Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Presidential Inauguration.
The pair also reported on the conventions for 48 Hills, a news site belonging to USF journalism professor Tim Redmond. “We’ve been friends since the start of college and we’ve talked about politics and things around that for a long time. We’d always wanted to go to the conventions. […] and when the chance came up through Tim Redmond and 48 Hills, it all just kind of came together,” said Lansing.
Lansing and Ngo described the reporting, filming and editing process as “boot camp for being a political reporter.” As they prepared for the conventions, Lansing and Ngo discussed comparisons between the nominating conventions in the summer of 1968, when the DNC in Chicago sparked major protests, and 2024’s conventions. Although this summer’s conventions did not result in the same kind of violence the filmmakers encountered protests in both Chicago and Milwaukee.
At the entrance of the RNC’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Forum, a fight broke out in front of the
pair. “One girl wearing a Make America Great Again hat was walking around hitting people who were filming and Trista was holding our big camera […] I just started filming on my phone in case she hit her so that we would have evidence. But then she came up to me and tried to hit my phone out of my hand and hit me in the process,” said Lansing.
Outside of the RNC, Lansing and Ngo encountered a clash between intoxicated convention goers and protestors. “I’m documenting these men, grown men, grown white men, who were yelling at a Black woman protesting the RNC,” Ngo recalled. “This guy goes, ‘I hate reporters, I just hate them. Journalists are the scum of the earth.’ And then he locks eyes with me and goes, ‘Oh, I love Koreans.’ He goes,
‘Annyeonghaseyo’ (Hello) I go, okay, I’m a little surprised that he knows Korean, but he’s getting in my face,” said Ngo, who is Vietnamese.
Reflecting on their experiences, Lansing said, “The DNC was so much harder than the RNC for us. Four days before we went my dad died very suddenly. It affected both of us pretty heavily. We still decided to go do this because it was very important to us.”
She continued, “On top of that, some of the longest and most grueling – physically and mentally – work days that we have ever experienced. We were just absolutely, I think the most tired either of us had ever been in our lives.”
Lansing and Ngo were out of their hotel rooms from 8 a.m to the early hours of the morning as every night of the conventions went overtime, explained Ngo. “Then you have to get home and go through footage. You don’t just get to go to bed,” said Lansing.
When covering a protest on night four of the DNC, Lansing was accosted by a teenage attendee who tried to swat her camera out of her hands. “People lose their jobs for this’ and [You] have no right to be there taking pictures or videos’ she just yells at me, and I’m not going to stand there and yell back at a 15-year-old girl. But I was so emotionally exhausted at that point that I walked behind a tree and just cried,” Lansing said.
Earlier the same night, Lansing was confronted by an older journalist who cornered her and accused her of pushing to the front of the crowd. One of the only female journalists present, Lansing refused to back down. “I was like ‘Do you want me to scream and have Secret Service over here?’ It was just a rough night. We had lost a lot of our patience,” Lansing said.
“It’s just how people view the press,” Ngo said. “We were attacked by the left, the right and other press,” added Lansing.
Still, the filmmakers did not believe that such scenes were representative of the nation, especially during their final trip to Washington D.C.
“We always kept in mind that who we’re talking to isn’t going to of be the majority of Trump supporters across the country,” said Ngo.
“I think if you’re going to any inauguration, you’re the most radical, he passionate about the person you voted for and who won.” Ngo said.
“This summer was an exercise of learning how to just completely gh switch off your personal mindset and switch on ‘I’m doing a job right now and my job is to be here and document this with this camera and then if I need to have an emotional reaction to it, that can happen later. [.] There’s just no time to feel or think anything, any personal ht thoughts, in these moments,” said Lansing.
The documentary will be approximately 90 minutes long. Lansing and Ngo are currently in the editing process and plan to release the film in May 2025. “I know seniors in the media studies department want to do a screening to showcase their projects and so we thought that would be a great place to premiere,” Ngo said.
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, News Editor: Deeya Gupta, Sports Editor: John Lindroos
