“Follow the Leader,” a political documentary that follows three junior politicians over a multi-year time span, gets a local theatrical release this weekend at the Angelika Mosaic in Fairfax, Va.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0q7SrtqdOw

The release location is significant not just because the Mosaic is one awesome spot to take in a flick. Fairfax is also the home of one of the film’s protagonists, Benjamin Trump. Jonathan Goodman Levitt’s movie, which was initially released last year at the 2012 political conventions in Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., follows Trump, David Beauregard Jr., and Nick Troiano as they move beyond high school politics to the national stage. The professionals who practice on the stage the three aspire to — ex-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (who is running for governor this year) — are all featured in the film.

In a way, the movie is a coming-of-age story. For all the complaints from the elder generations about millennials (kids these days!), it’s obvious that the currently maturing generation will do just fine, and will likely run into the same bumps we all did on our way to ruling the world. The fact that the documentary is getting a theatrical release — the list of well-made, socially redeeming films that never see the inside of a theater is long — is a testament to the currency of the story. It runs Friday through Sept. 12 at the Angelika Mosaic at 2911 District Ave. (Lee Highway and Gallows Road) in Fairfax, Va.