E-mail a friendMarshall Curry
airdate January 12, 2006
Marshall Curry is making a name for himself as a filmmaker. His first feature-length film, Street Fight - a look at Newark, NJ mayoral politics - has been called the best American political documentary since The War Room. Curry has produced and directed documentaries and interactive sites for museums and corporate clients and directed short films for nonprofits. His introduction to Newark elections came in '91, when he took time off from his studies at Swarthmore College to set up a literacy program in the city.
Marshall Curry
Tavis: Marshall Curry is the writer, producer, and director of the heralded documentary "Street Fight.' The film is the story of the 2002 mayor's race in Newark, New Jersey, which pitted an incumbent Sharpe James against a brash young challenger named Cory Booker. "The Washington Post' calls "Street Fight" the best American political documentary since 'The War Room.' Marshall, nice to meet you.
Marshall Curry: Thank you for having me on, I appreciate it.
Tavis: My pleasure. And congrats on a wonderful documentary. This thing has got a lot of buzz on it. As a matter of fact, at the moment, Oscar buzz, potentially a documentary nomination.
Curry: Well, who knows?
Tavis: You hope, yeah.
Curry: There are a lot of great films out this year, so it's hard to know.
Tavis: This is a fascinating story. I know Sharpe James and Cory Booker, and it was fascinating for me to watch this race from a distance. You have this, I guess a legend in New Jersey politics, Sharpe James, old school, if you will. This brash young guy Cory Booker, who is the antithesis of Sharpe James. He is a Yale law graduate, he's a Rhodes scholar, he's 32 years old, Sharpe's been around forever. It was a classic race pitting two Black men against each other in Newark. Tell me how you got interested in covering this story.
Curry: When I was in college, I'd taken a little time off and set up a literacy project in Newark, and that's when I really got to know the city and, and fell in love with it. You probably know it's an incredible city of folks that are tough and warm and tell you exactly what they think, which is perfect if you're a documentary filmmaker.
And at that point, Sharpe James was in his second term. And I had very high opinion of him. He, like you say, is a lion in New Jersey politics, incredibly charismatic. And a lot of people were crediting him with the renaissance that was coming to Newark. The rebuilding after the riots. And so fast forward 10 years, and my brother, who raises money for a lot of Democrats, was hitting me up for some money and saying, you gotta meet this guy Cory Booker.
He's unbelievable. He's gonna be the first Black President of America, which, he's 32, he'd only won one election one time as a city councilman, and I thought maybe it was a little hasty to be talking about presidential. But I went to a fundraiser for him, met him, and said wow, he's really got something.
And so like you say, they're both really charismatic, powerful people, and I didn't know what would happen when they got in the ring, but I knew something interesting would happen. So I bought a camera, and a couple of days later, started shooting.
Tavis: I can see why Sharpe would wanna remain mayor. Once you are the mayor, it makes sense to kind of want to stay there. But for a city like Newark, you're right, it's a wonderful city. But to be honest about it, as we both know, it has its challenges.
Curry: Oh, absolutely.
Tavis: It's a challenged city in a lot of ways, on a lot of different fronts. What was your sense of why Cory wanted - he's running again for mayor now, we'll come back to that in a second. What's your sense, hanging out with him, why he wanted to be mayor of that city to begin with?
Curry: Yeah, well, he grew up in New Jersey, although quite a ways away, both distance wise, but also kind of in a mindset. He grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey. His family was the first Black family to integrate a White town, and had to go through court battles to try to do that. But I think he felt a connection to Newark. His parents would come to church in Newark, and I think his uncle has a, lives in Newark.
And I think he realized that it is a city that has a lot of challenges. But I think he also thinks that it's a city whose challenges can be met with the right type of government. And you've got a quarter of a million people who I think he honestly believes he could do a lot to help. So I think that's really what it's about.
Tavis: One of the fascinating things about this race, you have two Black men, as I mentioned earlier, running against each other. Two Black men running against each other, and yet, the issue of race comes into this contest in an extreme sort of way.
Curry: Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing. Both Democrats, as well. You'd think that they would be on, that they would be allies, in a lot of ways. But not at all, and the race issue was brought up. Sharpe James, throughout the election, would accuse Cory Booker of not being really Black. Not being authentically Black. And that becomes one of the questions of the film, is how it is that we define racial authenticity.
And as a Newarker says in the film, we ask our kids to go to great colleges and become educated, and then when they do, we call them White. What is that saying to the kids in the projects? So.
Tavis: How did Cory handle that? Because I can see somebody being very offended when they have done everything that society asked you to do. You've gone to school, not just school, but some of the best schools, like Yale law. You become a Rhodes scholar. It doesn't get much better than that. So that is the epitome of, forget the epitome of what Black folk want.
It's the epitome of what White people want. People would die to be a Rhodes scholar and to go to Yale law. So Cory accomplishes these things, he runs for mayor in Newark, and he is being castigated for not being authentically Black, even though he did have these wonderful accomplishments.
Curry: I think it was painful to him, although I do think he was able to see it as a political tactic, and was able to kind of let it roll off of him. I think he was more concerned for how his parents felt. Both of his parents came to Newark to help him during the campaign, and they had both been very involved in the Civil Rights movement.
His dad had grown up poor, single mom in North Carolina, and had been one of the guys doing the sit-ins in the Woolworth's, and was beaten. And had really suffered for who he was. And I think for them, it was a little bit more painful, and a little bit more personal. And frankly, I think just a little bit more offensive.
Tavis: Now when you started filming this, Cory originally had, Cory, in his campaign, originally had some reservations about you having all this unfiltered, unlimited access. So they initially had some problems, but they eventually decided to let you come cover their campaign to do this wonderful documentary.
Sharpe James, who you also asked to be allowed to cover his campaign, never gave you permission to do that. And we are told that when you, not just told, we see in the documentary, that when you show up to try to cover him, you get harassed a couple times.
Curry: Yeah, it's funny. He certainly was not interested in letting me film it, and for Cory, it was a big discussion in their campaign. And there were a number of people on the campaign who said no way. They had no creative control over the film. The first time Cory saw the film was when it was essentially done. And so, it's a huge risk, to let somebody come into your office with a camera that could make whatever movie they want.
I guess the, recently John Kerry's campaign had let the guy in who made the film that was a little less flattering. So it is a real risk. Sharpe James didn't wanna take that risk, I guess. (laugh) And early in the film, he comes up to me and says, when I'm filming him at a public press event out in a park, he comes over with police and says we're gonna take your camera away, and you'd better stop filming me. Later, it becomes even more heated, and later on in the film. My camera's broken, and I'm actually physically assaulted by a police officer, so.
Tavis: Was it worth it?
Curry: Oh yeah, yeah. At the time, it was really, really rough. It's funny how when you look back on something, and it becomes an anecdote, or it becomes a film, it's kind of exciting. But at the time, it was not exciting, and frankly, I thought that the film was being ruined. Many times, I considered just quitting altogether, because I thought how can you make a film that's just about one candidate?
And it was really only when we got into the editing room and saw some of those scenes where we realized not only were they dramatic, but they also said a lot about Sharpe James, I think.
Tavis: What did you learn as a young filmmaker, getting that kind of access in a race that heated?
Curry: I knew a good bit about politics. I'd worked on some campaigns before, and my family's sort of political. But I was amazed to see the level of, I guess, old style machine politics. That those things are alive and well. I live in New York, in Brooklyn. We used to have Tammany Hall, and Chicago used to have the Daley Senior.
And there are obviously a lot of, America has a history of political machines. But I think most people think that they've been pretty washed away. And I was surprised to see that in Newark, if you are a business owner, and you put up a sign for the wrong guy, code enforcement might come and find a code violation at your business.
Or if you work for City Hall and you support the wrong guy, maybe you're gonna get demoted, or you're going to lose your job, even if you're supposed to be protected by code enforcement. Or there's another scene in the film where the mayor accuses a Cory Booker, a Newarker, of being a terrorist, and has him sort of taken out to the back and checked out and shaken down. And that's pretty cynical and pretty old school.
Tavis: So in the race that you covered, the mayor, Sharpe James, of course, ends up winning. Cory loses. A relatively close race, Cory ends up losing. As we sit here now, Cory has announced that he is running again for mayor of Newark, and again, as we sit here now, Sharpe James has not said whether or not he's going to run. So what's your sense of what's going to happen this time around?
Curry: I talk to a few people in Newark still, and monitor. There are these chat rooms where people buzz about Newark politics. And seems like on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they're sure Sharpe is gonna run, and on Tuesday, Thursday, they're sure he's not. So, I really don't know. He's 70 now. He would be going for his sixth term in office.
I think he definitely has a desire, from what I hear, to sit this one out and retire as an undefeated sort of champion of Newark politics. But I think he just can't stand Cory Booker so much that he can't bear the idea of letting Cory walk into office. And so I think those are sort of the two things that are making him try to figure out what to do.
Tavis: Of course, as you said right quick, there's also the risk that if you run and lose this time, then your record.
Curry: Then you go out, yeah, right.
Tavis: Nice to meet you.
Curry: Thank you so much, I really appreciate you having me.
Tavis: Great, great documentary piece. Glad to have you on.
Curry: Thank you.
Tavis: Check it out. "Street Fight.' That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International, check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
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