Production
The Choice 2020 is the ninth installment of The Choice, a series of television films produced by the American investigative journalism program Frontline beginning in 1988, with each film aiming to better inform American voters about the two major candidates of a respective presidential election.[17] The installment was first discussed at a Television Critics Association press tour by director Michael Kirk and Frontline executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath on July 28, 2020,[2] and was later formally announced on August 7.[18] A three-minute trailer was released on the same day of its announcement.[6]
Kirk explained that he approached the film seeking a new way of telling the stories of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, as they are "two people who have been in the public eye for a half century".[17] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic afflicting the United States during the 2020 election season, the film's production team could not fully conduct face-to-face interviews as done in previous installments of The Choice. Kirk stated that the team had to use the videotelephony software program Zoom for most of their interviews, stating that "I’m used to interviewing people for hours at a time. Doing that over Zoom is a challenge in its own."[17] At the same time, Kirk considers The Choice 2020 to be the "most important and essential" out of the five installments he has made so far due to the nation's deep political divide, along with the pandemic, a weakened economy, and renewed grievances against systemic racism.[17]
As the film was aired during what Rath described as a "perilous time" for the United States, Frontline decided to release some of its interviews in advance of the film's premiere as part of the program's ongoing Transparency Project, beginning on September 14 with Mary Trump's interview.[4][19]
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