Am very excited because I’m going to Aktivix this weekend.
Be in no doubt there will be more on this later.
Was lucky enough to go to the pictures for the first time in ages last night to see the utterly marvelous Unprecedented. Here’s an item I put on the IMC-Sheffield newswire as Unprecedented at The Showroom.
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Ninety people attended a showing [in association with Sheffield Indymedia] at the Showroom Cinema of Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election. As the name implies, this is a documentary about the chicanery, deceipt and fraudulent behaviour of the rich and [mostly] Republican around the infamous “too close to call” election in the self-styled “great state of Florida”.
Attendees were lucky to have Rick Pérez the film’s co-writer and co-producer in attendance and introducing the screening. After the riveting documentary, Rick fielded questions from forty members of the audience who hung around afterwards for about an hour.
The story is too long to go into here. The bobbings and weavings of Jeb and Dubya Bush, Warren Christopher, supposedly impartial state election officials et al, tell the tale well enough.
So impressions instead: I found myself in an unusual position while watching: I’m an anarchist and don’t believe in parliamentary democracy, but still found myself becoming more and more furious as the story unfolded. That the film could ellicit this response in me about something which I care little about is evidence that this a fine piece of film-making. In a sense the machinations of the career politicians is just a frame to hang this story on – I think the film’s main theme is really the utter contempt, that both the party political and [state and federal] bureacratic apparatuses, hold for the wishes and aspirations of working and oppressed people. Not one of these bunch of criminals had the supposedly sacrosanct vision of “democracy” at the forefront of their thinking or activity.
For more information on Unprecedented, visit their website. The film started as an Los Angeles-Indymedia project and is an excellent example of “becoming the media”. If you didn’t manage to get to the Showroom, never fear – Sheffield-Indymedia now have a video copy of this film [kindly donated by Rick]. If you would like to arrange a showing contact Sheffield Indymedia.
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As lots of IMC-Sheffield people are away at the Next Five Minutes event in Amsterdam or recovering from the exertions of Disarm DSEi, it fell to me to be liaison person for the collective on this screening.
In concrete terms this meant that I met Rick at the railway station and showed him to his hotel [not too onerous]. After a frantic day of running around—Ben had a craft stall at Sheffield Fair—got to the screening with ten minutes to spare with Ben and Ceils. Did a short introduction about Rick to the assembled throng, a few words from him and then settled into the Showroom’s luxurious seats and prepared to be entertained.
I think it’s apparent from the review that I liked the film a lot, and I haven’t really got a lots else to say [short of a very long analysis style essay].
I was really excited by the fact that so may people turning up for the Q&A session after the film. The questions were intelligent [for example: “How are [black, Democrat voting] people who were robbed of their franchise approaching the next round of elections? How is that anger being channeled?”]. Now that gives you something to get your teeth into. Rick told me that this film has been his life for over two years now. This was apparent in his answers [not in a ‘world-weary, I’m sorta bored’ kinda way—but rather in a ‘I know my way around this subject matter well and I can convey what’s a really complex story in an accessible and understandable kinda way’ kinda way].
Over an average/slightly above average curry in the curry house next door [competent though unexciting veg balti and naan, not enough salt in the salt lassi] with Rick, fellow Sheffield IMC-Sheffielder Steve and my family, we had what can be only be described as a broad-ranging discussion. Topics included the relative merits of the UK and US educational systems, the history of the Yemeni community in Sheffield [including the totally amazing Yemeni Steelworkers’ Union story, which I’ll post up here when I remember], Sheffield-IMC, LA-IMC, DSEi, anarchist federations in the UK and US, Sheffield’s recent and not so recent political history, consensus decision making, the Barbara Streisand Foundation, patterns of Mexican immigration in the US [and California specifically] over the last 80 years and many more.
All in all a fantastic evening—and see the damn film if you can.