Given the broadcast skirmishes surrounding this year’s coronation of the Commander-in-Chief, it is no surprise that filmmaker Caroline Suh has elections on the brain. Although Suh’s new campaign documentary features not Obama nor McCain, but lesser known and much younger hopefuls who nonetheless woke up one morning thinking, “I want to be the next president.”

In “FrontRunners,” Suh’s directorial debut, the campaign for student body president at New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, one of the nation’s most prestigious public schools, is revealed. Here, the 3,200 students, who represent all the racial and economic backgrounds of New York’s five boroughs, are familiar with competition. The specialized school for mathematics, science and technology, charges no tuition, but requires a citywide entrance exam; each year, just the top 3 percent of the 25,000 students who apply are admitted. According to Suh, the probability of matriculating into Stuyvesant is comparable to that of Yale Law School.

On a campus that houses some of the brightest minors in the city, gawky limbs and hormones are obscured by the sheer determination of precocious teens who are more likely to fret over the Ivy League than what they’ll wear to prom. Stuyvesant’s election might be a fledgling example of campaigns resulting in a Congressional seat, but the crusade for class president is nothing short of a tour de force. The four presidential candidates trailed in the film must choose running mates, give speeches, negotiate racial politics, execute televised debates, compete for the school newspaper’s endorsement, and encourage voter turnout. As a student of Stuyvesant’s Class of 1964, Dick Morris, Bill Clinton’s former advisor, was the campaign manager for now-Congressman Jerry Nadler during his bid for student body president. “It’s the hardest race I ever fought,” Morris reportedly said.

“Their election is not a popularity contest,” says Suh. “There may be silly issues such as ‘Popsicle Day’ but there are also real issues. It’s amazing now, watching the [U.S.] presidential election and seeing how similar the experiences are.” The most striking parallels include a female presidential candidate, the “change versus experience” debate, and the race factor (more than 50 percent of the Stuyvesant student population is Asian).

“FrontRunners,” which premiered at South by Southwest in March and has plans for national distribution, was fortuitously released during the current election cycle for president of the United States, but Suh wanted to direct a campaign documentary long before the national front runners began duking it out. Inspired by classic vérité campaign films such as “The Perfect Candidate” and “The War Room,” and her own background working for the Democratic National Committee during college, she decided to cover teenagers running for office because “the whole atmosphere surrounding political campaigns is very interesting,” she says, “and I wanted to approach it with a twist.”

The school opened its doors to Suh in 2006, and she spent six weeks camped out in the hallways, filming the campaign. Cameras mostly rolled on campus, but the crew also visited the homes of candidates and attended the prom (“Though no one invited us to any parties,” Suh says).