DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW
Election 2008
Katy Chevigny is the director of Election Day. After the film aired on P.O.V., viewers wrote in with questions for Katy on the P.O.V. Blog. Read on as she answers questions about Nader and Gore in 2000, Ohio in 2004 and more.
Mit asks: In the 2000 election, a lot of people blamed Nader for causing Gore to lose. However, Nader defenders blame the election process, particularly noting the thousands of uncounted votes due to errors in polling — illegal, non-handicapped-accessible booths, or absurdly long lines in poor neighborhoods. Based on what this film is about, does the Nader defense hold water that he wasn't responsible for Gore losing? Was it more likely the lack of proper election facilities?
Katy Chevigny: The ultimate findings in the poll count for Florida in the 2000 election, as summarized in the Election FAQ on the P.O.V. website for Election Day, shows that even with Nader in the race, Gore won the popular vote in the state of Florida. If those ballots had been counted properly and in a timely fashion, Gore would have won the election despite Nader being in the race.
David asks: In Election Day you combine 11 different stories of citizens determined to vote in the November 2004 election. Four years later, we are in the midst of another election season. That being said, I was wondering if you have kept in touch and kept up with the stories of the individuals from Election Day. If so, do you plan to do any follow-up filming this coming November?
Katy: I don't have any plans on filming this November, but my guess is that many, many other people will, and I look forward to seeing what they discover! We have kept up with many of the characters and you can see what they are up to here on the Film Update page.
Jacquinette asks: I am still enjoying this wonderful film; it gives a varied perspective on the election experience in America. I was captivated by your focus on ex-felon voting rights.
I would like to know if you are working on a film that focuses more closely with this particular issue. Furthermore, how can I get involved with this issue and help? I'm also wondering if you will be touring with this film in the near future.
Katy: I'm glad you took special note of the issue of felon disenfranchisement. This was an issue that we were particularly interested in highlighting in the film, in part because we think it is very important, and I have the sense that the public does not have great awareness of the issue.
That's great that you'd like to do more! The experts on the P.O.V. website have many great suggestions for getting more involved. One of the key ways is to volunteer to be a pollworker. Rosemary Rodriquez at the Election Assistance Commission explains a bit more about it.
We are touring with the film this fall. You can learn more about the schedule at electiondaythemovie.com.
John asks: Why doesn't your film mention the horrible disenfranchisment that took place in Ohio in 2004? Hundreds of thousands of voters were knocked off of the voter registration rolls in Ohio, and there were major problems that occured with electronic voting machines and vote flipping.
Katy: In response to viewers' concerns that Election Day did not cover the controversy in Ohio regarding the election in 2004, that is due in part to the fact that we had the made the decision before Election Day to film the events that were happening to these particular people we were following. So therefore, any events in the aftermath of the election were not covered. We were also aware that there were several other films also being filmed about the 2004 election, and we assumed that many of them would cover the details in Ohio.
Susan asks: Great film, Katy. How did you and your team decide who to follow for all of the stories in the film?
Katy: It was a massive undertaking to find all the "characters" we followed in Election Day and to gain permissions to film with all of them. Our producers Maggie Bowman and Dallas Brennan Rexer, along with our Associate Producer Christy King, each spent many weeks researching possible storylines and locations. We reached out to several nonprofit organizations working on various election issues, and they put us in touch with groups working on felon disenfranchisement, election protection, and alerted us to the fact that there were international monitors working on the elections. In addition, we sent out email blasts to hundreds of people all over the country, seeking ideas for characters or stories that were not generally covered in the mainstream new media, and chose characters based on that research.
Election Day shows us that many stories about the American voting process and the need for election reform slip beneath the radar of mainstream news coverage. Now that we're just a few short months away from Election Day 2008, we want to take a close look at how
these issues are being covered today.
For the next two weeks, P.O.V. and PBS Engage are partnering with NewsTrust.net, a nonprofit social news site devoted to finding good journalism, to review current news stories about the 2008 elections with a focus on the voting process from the perspective of the American man and woman on the street. We invite you to participate in this "news hunt" — think of it as a scavenger hunt for good journalism — by signing up on the NewsTrust site and evaluating the media you're already consuming every day.
To get started, simply sign up for an account on the NewsTrust.net site. Then you can rate as many articles as you like, using NewsTrust's easy-to-use online tools. From the site's homepage, click the "Politics" tab, then under "Topics>U.S. Elections," click "Presidential Election 2008." On that page, you can click any article title to go directly to the full article on the website where it was posted so you can read it thoroughly. When you're ready, go back to NewsTrust; a review form will appear in a separate window, inviting you to rate that story — you can answer as many or as few of the questions on the form as you like. For more tips on how to join this news hunt, check NewsTrust's New Member Welcome page.
Throughout the news hunt, you can see the top-rated Presidential Election 2008 stories as reviewed by NewsTrust users. You'll see where the articles were published, a brief user summary/commentary on each article and links to other reviews. You'll also see a direct link to the review page so you can contribute your own evaluation of a story's coverage — you can choose to rate a story either with an overall recommendation or according to specific criteria, such as fairness or accuracy. If you see an article online that isn't available on the NewsTrust site, you can submit it by using their bookmarklet, which makes it easy to submit news stories from your Web browser.
At the end of our two-week news hunt, we hope to have a better idea of the state of today's news coverage on the presidential election, especially coverage of election reform. We're anxious to see the results: Are the media doing a good job covering this topic? Are there areas that are not being addressed? What can we do to raise the bar for journalists covering these issues today? We want to know — so let your voice be heard and review some stories today!
This spring, WGBH Lab and P.O.V. have partnered to fund 10 independent producers, helping each of them realize ideas for a three-minute short documentary about a 2008 election story. We evaluated almost 100 pitches that reflect a wide range of filmmakers' experiences with the coming election. Everyone at the Lab and P.O.V. was impressed with quality of pitches, and though we had intended to choose five winners, you can see that the number was doubled — congratulations to all 10 producers! We wish them the best of luck, and can't wait to see what they bring back.
The winning entries are listed below. For more information on each producer and their film, click the images; to follow the production process, visit the WGBH Lab Election 2008 site and check back often. The filmmakers are in production through June 6, and rough cuts will be online for review by the Lab community by June 9.
Election Fatigue
Teralyn Wade - Jackson, MI
The Decision of Whether and How to Vote
Chris Metzler and Josh Kurz - San Francisco, CA
Back Home and Voting
Anthony Tenczar - Concord, NH
Uncle Sam Lives!
Jean Nagy - Boston, MA
Liberia??? Check!
Lisa Russell - Brooklyn, NY
See more of the winning pitches after the jump....
Irene Villaseñor is P.O.V.'s Youth Views manager. Youth Views is a project that works with youth, educators, and youth-serving organizations to use P.O.V. films as a tool for youth engagement. Irene writes in today to talk about how communities can organize around the 2008 P.O.V. film Election Day to reduce voter disenfranchisement, and her own experiences on Super Tuesday with the Asian Pacific American community.
On July 1, P.O.V. will broadcast Election Day, a film by Katy Chevigny that combines 11 stories that were shot around the country on November 2, 2004. The film focuses on how incredibly varied our voting experiences are across the country — we see stories of activists on the Pine Ridge Reservation as they mobilize Native voters, advocates in New York City that want to unleash the voting power of ex-convicts, and a Republican committee man in Chicago that wants to ensure that Republican voters aren't intimidated at polling stations, among other scenes from election day 2004.
This wide-angle view reveals the barriers to civic participation that some communities must overcome in order to have their votes count. The film can be a powerful eye-opener, especially for citizens who blame voters for the electoral scandals in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004.
Working with this film inspired me to reflect on how my own community, Asian Pacific Americans, struggles with voter disenfranchisement. Since May is Asian Pacific Heritage month, this is one of the best times to delve deeper into our legacies and assess how much progress has been made.
We still have a way to go.
Since 1988, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) has been monitoring our community's participation in local and national elections. In a 2006 report to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (which was created to eliminate literacy tests, poll taxes and other barriers to voting), AALDEF identified that Asian Americans continue to experience racial discrimination, harassment, and institutional barriers at polls.
AALDEF's latest report, Asian American Access to Democracy in the 2006 Elections, cites incidents of anti-Asian voter disenfranchisement in 25 cities across the nation. These statistics called me forth to get involved. On Super Tuesday, I volunteered to survey Asian American voters about their experience, ensure that translators and translated materials were available, refer people to AALDEF's complaint hotline, and speak to the press about the situation.
During my shift, I discussed with the other volunteers how Election Day could be an incredible resource for people who wanted to mobilize communities for the 2008 elections and examine what deters individuals and communities from political life.
If you want to borrow Election Day for a community or classroom screening, sign up on P.O.V.'s Community Events Planner. For information on a range of election-year issues, check out P.O.V.'s Why Vote? website. And if you would like to get involved with AALDEF's Asian American Democracy Project, visit their website for more information.
Did you know that Earth Day was first officially observed throughout the United States in 1970? Thanks to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, more than 20 million Americans organized massive rallies and demonstrations for a healthier, sustainable environment, protesting against massive oil spills, industrial pollution, and the loss of wilderness areas in what would become an annual tradition across the world. So where are we on Earth Day 2008 — 38 years later?
It seems safe to say that awareness of environmental issues has become much more widespread today — things like recycling and conserving energy are second nature to us now in a way that would have been quite novel just a few years ago. And over the years, P.O.V. has showcased a number of docs — including The Chances of the World Changing (P.O.V. 2007), Maquilapolis: City of Factories (P.O.V. 2006), and In the Light of Reverence (P.O.V. 2001), featuring different angles on environmental issues, from conservation to land use to consumption — in addition to our Borders | Environment site, which looks at the way we interact with the earth, air, and water around us.
Last week, President Bush said the U.S. was on track to meet its goals on global warming. I came across an interesting Bloggingheads debate reacting to his speech on the New York Times site, in which Heather Hulbert and Eric Posner discuss whether politicians can effectively encourage Americans to "go green." Their conversation brings up some issues about the role of politicians in shaping both public opinion and public policy. I think it's clear that overall, the environment is one of the issues on which voters want to know where their candidates stand (see the Pew Forum on Religion & Life's summary of each candidate's position). But how much do we — as citizens and consumers — want our government to dictate how we "go green"? Should we have more government intervention in the form of new policies? Is it possible to stem the tide of global warming if the government doesn't get more involved?
This year, P.O.V.'s Why Vote? site is dedicated to exploring the issues that matter most to citizens during this election year. What issues are you most passionate about? Is it the environment? The need for better monitoring of polling centers on election day? Campaign issues? Or maybe immigration and border issues? We'd love to hear from you — so grab a video camera and start shooting, and we may feature your video on the Why Vote? site. And if you submit a proposal through the WGBH Lab Open Call, your idea for a short film may even be eligible for some cash for development and the opportunity to have the finished video aired along with a P.O.V. broadcast this summer.
What are you waiting for? Tell us what candidates have to do to get your vote and send it in.
Earlier this month, I attended the Film Your Issue launch party at the United Nations. I first heard about Film Your Issue (FYI) from our partners at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. For the past five years we've worked with their American Democracy Project, to support them in accomplishing the goal of educating undergraduates in public higher education on global issues. Why? So students are ready to wisely practice their civic responsibilities as thoughtful and engaged citizens.
The concept behind FYI is beautifully clear and direct. They ask 14-24 year olds to "film their issue" because they want young people to contribute to the public discussion on pressing issues — and even influence policy. We are in fantastic company on this project — the United Nations, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NAACP, USA TODAY, Associated Press, MTV, the Humane Society of the United States, the NRDC, Starz, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Association of Student Councils, AFI Silverdocs and AFI Screen Nation, International Documentary Association, MySpace, the American Association of University Professors, the University Film and Video Association and the Association of American Colleges and Universities are some of the other sponsors. Plus, we are offering this year a summer internship at P.O.V. as one of the special prizes. For our prize, the winning film will be selected for illuminating issues relevant in the 2008 Presidential election, including education, election reform, environment, foreign policy and the war, healthcare and immigration.The winning film will be posted on the P.O.V. site and broadcast in full or excerpted on Starz.
Find out how to submit your video.
Over on the Moyers Blog this week, there is a lively debate about what one book the next occupant of the White House should bring along when he or she moves in next January. The post generated over 2,400 suggestions — and it is worth a look. The recommendations make up an eclectic list of books by authors as wide-ranging as Aristotle, Howard Zinn and Dr. Seuss, to name just a few.
At any rate, it got me thinking (and apparently also Rex Reed, although I'm not sure he was also inspired by the Moyers Blog): There's a screening room in the White House. What documentary do you think the next President should bring to the White House?
Reply with your recommendation below.
With Election Day, filmmaker Katy Chevigny takes a look back at the events of November 2, 2004. We caught up with Chevigny last week to ask her some questions about her film and find out why she believes some steps still need to be taken to ensure a fair election on November 4, 2008. Election Day will have its broadcast premiere on P.O.V. later this year.
P.O.V.: Tell us about your new film, Election Day.
Chevigny: Election Day follows eleven people participating in the electoral process over the course of the day on November 2, 2004. Through the eyes of poll workers, international observers, first time voters, former elected officials, campaigners, and voting rights activists, we tried to show what voting means to Americans. In our filming, we saw a lot of flaws in the system, but we also saw a lot of people trying to make it work.
What makes the film unusual is that we shot it all on one day. The chronology of the film starts at dawn and ends well after midnight. I was interested in the challenge of editing together footage from disparate locations and characters and finding themes and contrasts that would make the material add up to more than the sum of its parts.
P.O.V.: The 2008 presidential elections are just around the corner. What lessons can viewers, voters and officials take from Election Day to ensure that the election process is fair in November? What do you think can be done to improve the voting process in America?
Chevigny: There are many, many things we can do. There has not been sufficient political will to make the system better but there are concrete solutions, for sure. Spencer Overton's book Stealing Democracy offers a very pragmatic look at what doesn't work and why. And once you really understand it, the solutions are easier to identify. A couple of clear steps we could take: truly non-partisan poll workers, better training of election workers, and perhaps most importantly, state election commissioners should not be partisan office-holders! This is a blatant conflict-of-interest that should have been eliminated long ago. In terms of combating voter intimidation and the use of deceitful tactics that mislead voters, there is currently a bill before the Senate that would help ensure fair elections. You can track the progress of the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act online. Another practice that blocks citizens from having their votes count on Election Day is voter caging. Notoriously targeted at low-income and minority communities, voter caging happens when an organization or campaign sends mail marked "return to sender" or "do not forward" and then uses the returned addresses to challenge votes cast by citizens whose addresses might have changed since they registered to vote. For more information on this practice and what you can do about it, check out the National Campaign for Fair Election website. I also feel strongly that the math created by the Electoral College is a big part of the reason people stay at home. Let's face it: if you're in a swing state, your vote just DOES count more.
Read more after the jump...
With Critical Condition, Roger Weisberg takes an unflinching look at what it's like to be sick and uninsured in America. He took a few minutes to answer some questions about his film and why health care and universal health insurance should be a critical issue during this election year. Critical Condition will have its broadcast premiere on P.O.V. in 2008.
P.O.V.: Tell us about your new film, Critical Condition.
Weisberg: I've made eight previous health care programs for PBS, but they were public affairs-style documentaries with narrators, lots of information, issue analysis, politicians, and other experts. For Critical Condition, I chose a cinema vérité style because I wanted viewers to vicariously experience the medical, financial, and emotional impact of being unable to obtain necessary health care. Instead of interviewing experts or policy makers who would tell viewers what to think, I wanted these disturbing stories to unfold through the experiences and words of our primary subjects. I believe that these narratives of uninsured patients in the midst of their own medical crises will engage viewers far more effectively than yet another recitation of grim facts and statistics.
I also chose to make Critical Condition now, because I wanted to help advance the cause of universal health insurance. I think we are on the brink of a rare historical opportunity to overhaul our troubled health care system, and my fondest hope is that Critical Condition can contribute to this effort at this opportune moment.
Still from Critical Condition: Ronnie Dove comforts his wife, Karen, who faces an uphill battle with cancer in Austin, Texas because of a delayed diagnosis due to her lack of insurance. Photo by Heather Courtney
P.O.V.: Health care is one of the hot-button issues being debated in the 2008 Presidential Elections. Do you think the candidates are paying enough attention to the issue?
Weisberg: The public has consistently rated health care the most pressing domestic policy issue in the presidential election. Now that the economy is heading for a downturn, economic security also has risen to the top of the list, but as the stories in Critical Condition clearly illustrate, nobody is economically secure without health insurance. A job loss, pink slip, divorce, or a major illness can easily result in the loss of health insurance, and at that point, any illness can quickly become a financial calamity. The Democratic candidates have all spoken at length about health care, and they all have presented comprehensive plans to cover the uninsured. Although Senator Clinton's and Obama's plans differ in their detail — most dramatically over the necessity for an individual mandate — they have more in common than in conflict.
Watch the trailer and read more after the jump...
This year, there are so many sites that feature political coverage that it can be almost as overwhelming to wade through the coverage as it is to figure out who really stands for what. Here are a few sites that do a nice job of rounding up audio and video — from news, interviews with the candidates, and thorough analysis — that will help you understand the candidates and their stance on the issues that mean most to you.
The Online NewsHour Vote 2008
We are loyal PBS viewers and Web surfers here at P.O.V, so we've been looking at the NewsHour's comprehensive primary coverage for months now. We're impressed with their site, particularly the Reporters' Blogs, which are updated around the clock by reporters following each candidate as they crisscross the country in the few hours before Super Tuesday. Even more impressive is the Primary Election Map, which allows you to choose your state for stories from the NewsHour, NPR and local PBS stations about campaigning and issues on the local level. In terms of video, check out the NewsHour's Candidate Interview Series (see the bottom right-hand link on the main Vote 2008 page), for great one-on-one interviews with the candidates on hot-button issues.
Yahoo! News - Election '08
Yahoo rounds up news from all over to provide comprehensive coverage of the candidates and the issues. The election coverage section features a roundup of video clips from a range of sites, from CNN to the BBC and Fox News. Also, check out the Democratic Debates mashup: While the field's narrowed to two by this point, this interactive "mashup" debate, hosted by Charlie Rose, is still a very interesting way to see the candidates speak about their positions. Users select two candidates, pick one of four issues, and then see a short video of each candidate explaining his or her position.
Election Podcasts on iTunes:
Apple gathers a variety of podcasts, audiobooks, and video downloads for easy access through the iTunes portal. Check out the New Yorker's "On the Campaign Trail" podcast, commentary from Slate.com, and Vote 2008 from the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Read more after the jump....
Environmental issues are a hot topic this election year. David Nanasi caught up with P.O.V. alum Judith Helfand (A Healthy Baby Girl, P.O.V. 1997 and True Lives 2005, and The Uprising of '34, P.O.V. 1995) and Daniel B. Gold to hear more about what they've been doing to support their latest film, Everything's Cool.
Both Everything's Cool and your previous film, Blue Vinyl, have centered on environmental themes. What drew you to the subject?
Judith: Sometimes stories and themes choose us. Personally, my focus on the environment as a filmmaker is the result of an unnatural turn of events — when I was 25, I was diagnosed with cancer from in utero exposure to the anti-miscarriage drug and synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), which my mom took when she was pregnant with me in 1963. Within minutes of my diagnosis, the "environment" became personal. It was not out there in "nature," but in here — in our bodies, in our homes and apartments, inextricably linked to our relationships with our mothers and fathers, in our ability or inability to reproduce, parent and protect our young.
That experience led me to make A Healthy Baby Girl, an autobiographical film that reframed the toxics issue into a story about family, and how one generation unwittingly poisoned the next.
That film naturally led to its sequel Blue Vinyl, which I was truly fortunate to co-direct and co-produce with Daniel Gold. Dan also shot the film and received a Sundance Excellence in Cinematography award. I think the cinematic and political challenges we faced with Blue Vinyl — and the great feeling that comes from making a movie that has the narrative capacity to both entertain and be in service of a movement — inspired us to tackle global warming, which Dr. Heidi Cullen, the Weather Channel climatologist who is featured in Everything's Cool calls the "mother of all environmental problems."
The challenge is at the heart of the global warming messaging problem, and is in fact at the heart of the story we tell — it is what animates our characters: how do you collapse the future (the real-life threat of an ever-warming world and our short-sighted addiction to oil) into the present and make the message urgent enough to take action before it's too late?
Read more after the jump...
Watching
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965
P.O.V. Film Screenings
Next week: Waging a Living in Burtonsville, Maryland.
New Yorker: Naked Campaign Shorts
Illustrator Steve Brodner draws the candidates.
Reading
A New Award for Nonfiction
Filmmaker and blogger AJ Schnack announces the birth of a new award for docs.
Patti Smith: Dream of Life Director Steven Sebring
indieWire interviews the first time documentary filmmaker.
From now until New Year's day, the P.O.V. Blog will be posting about great documentaries from the P.O.V. archives. Rent one at the local video store or via Netflix to watch with your friends and family during the holiday season.
Every Mothers Son recalls accusations of police brutality during New York's Giuliani years
When Amadou Diallo died in a hail of police gunfire in his New York apartment building's vestibule while reaching for his wallet, there was widespread public outrage. Many New Yorkers believed Diallo's death was an egregious example of police negligence or criminal misconduct aimed at poor and minority communities. Others, including then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the police leadership, suggested the killing was a tragic yet unavoidable accident in the dangerous job of policing the city's mean streets. Despite differing accounts of police actions and motives, one thing was certain: the young Amadou, a West African studying in the U.S., was guilty of nothing more than coming home at the same moment a squad from the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit happened to be passing his building.
I thought of Every Mother's Son a few weeks ago while listening to NPR's excellent "On the Media" program. On their November 30 broadcast, a reporter from Arkansas talked about his frustration with the national media and their coverage of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Arkansas Times reporter Max Brantley complained that "Huckabee's ethical history isn't making the news as much as his folksy conservative bona-fides," saying that he and other local reporters "have some insights that the rest of the world maybe hasn't tuned into yet."
As we approach the primary phase of the 2008 presidential election starting later this week in Iowa, I want to recommend this film that aired on P.O.V. in 2004 that recalls the history of another presidential hopeful. Every Mother's Son takes a look at events that occurred during Rudolph Guiliani's term as mayor of New York City, before he became "America's mayor."
Read the complete synopsis after the jump...
WATCHING
Indie Lens Short Film Festival
An eclectic mix of stories and storytelling with this batch of winning shorts. View. Vote. Download.
18 in '08
Nonpartisan doc and movement targeting today's 17- to 24-year-olds, many of whom will be voting in their first presidential election in 2008. Watch trailer.
Frederick Wiseman
Many of Wiseman's documentaries are finally available on DVD for the home market.
YouTube: The Gilmour Boys
What happens when novelist David Gilmour lets his 15-year-old son drop out of school on the condition that they watch three movies a week together? (Via Paper Cuts)
Independent Lens: Sisters in Law In a small courthouse in Cameroon, a tough-minded state prosecutor and court president help women in their village fight abuse.
READING
WireTap: Brother Outsider
Filmmakers talk about how the once untold story of Bayard Rustin is making waves among a new generation of organizers.
For this week's media guide, we take a look at documentary photography. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then shouldn't powerful, affecting photographs be able to change the world?
Here's are some places to start browsing for photographs which are both moving and provocative. Some of these photos showcase situations in the news, and others shed light on tragedies around the world that receive little coverage.
California Wildfires: Photo Essays
Wally Skalij for the L.A. Times
As the wildfires rage on in California, newspapers have been full of photographs that document the destruction. For glimpses of the disaster, check out the L.A. Times' photo galleries (scroll down the page and ook for the galleries on the right side), the New York Times' slideshow and the Washington Post's photographs.
More documentary photography after the jump...
