Thursday, June 11, 2009

Kicking Ass and Tallying Votes

Greetings from the land of continued unemployment. Since we last spoke I have been to Disney World. It really is the most magical place on Earth. I don't get how I, at 21, can be just as excited to go on Star Tours or The Haunted Mansion as when I was 6. Mind-blowing but true.

Speaking of getting your mind blown, I watched Street Fight last night. Now, if you're asking why I would blog about this, then a) you need reading glasses, and b) I'm not. Street Fight is a documentary about the 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey that pitted the 4-term incumbent Sharpe James against the young, vibrant city councilman Cory Booker. I love to watch documentaries, but it is rare that one of them amazes me like this one did. Street Fight is one of the most important films made in the past decade.

Although it follows what most people outside of NJ (heck, even outside of Newark) might deem an insignificant political race, the movie is about so much more. It is a look into the changing social, political, and racial lives of American people. By following around these two very different candidates, producer, director, cinematographer, and editor Marshall Curry has given this country the kind of gritty look in the mirror that it needs. It is not the glossy, airbrushed cover of a magazine. It is a portrait of this nation in all its grimy, underhanded nakedness. Everyone in America needs to see this movie now.

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