SOCIAL: street fight

[adrian cotter]

If you get a chance, go see the documentary "street fight" now  
playing at the Roxie (through Mar 8th).

I don't like hyping movies, because I don't want to spoil people with  
expectations, but I can't help it here... (you can skip the rest  
below if you are worried about that and just go see it!)

"Street Fight" tells the story of a young african-american  
politician, Cory Booker, taking on Newark's democratic political  
machine in a mayoral election.

It's not any one thing that makes this documentary great, its  
everything: charismatic characters, dramatic ups and downs, the film- 
makers own involvement, the build up of tension, the unveiling of the  
background and history, echos of our own local elections, and echoes  
of our national elections, of the divisions in hopes, aspirations,  
and the deep heart felt convictions on all sides, and of cynical  
manipulation of those.

It is not a comforting look at our democracy, but it is a great  
story, and left me hopeful.

Its up for an Academy Award, so if you miss it at the Roxie this  
week, you'll probably get another chance.

Adrian

P.S. We also saw "CSA: Confederate States of America", an alternate  
history documentary, based on the supposition that the South wins the  
Civil War and continues the institution of slavery through the  
present day. It is made as if it were a British Documentary shown on  
US TV and broken up by commercials. It's very well done, with clips  
from movies and the stage and builds up a plausible picture of what  
the world might have been like.