Nov 2, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Election Day
With Penny Falk
Forget the pie charts, color-coded maps and hyperventilating pundits. What’s the street-
level experience of voters in today’s America? In a triumph of documentary storytelling,
Election Day combines eleven stories–all shot simultaneously on November 2, 2004,
from dawn until long past midnight-into one. Factory workers, ex-felons, harried moms,
Native American activists, and diligent poll watchers, from South Dakota to Florida, take
the process of democracy into their own hands. The result: an entertaining, inspiring and
sometimes unsettling tapestry of citizens determined on one fateful day to make their
votes count.
120 minutes
ELECTION DAY, by award-winning director Katy Chevigny, takes a verite approach to
American voting. It backs away from two-party combat in favor of what men and women on the
street do on their quadrennial day of destiny—November 2, 2004.
Leon Batts of New York City votes for the first time as an ex-con. Rashida Tlaib of Dearborn, MI,
mobilizes Muslims to vote. Jim Fuchs of Chicago, Republican Committeeman and certified
underdog, rallies his people to overcome their losing-party status. These and many others are
the stars of ELECTION DAY, a moving and entertaining portrait of the United States as a
democracy.
“We see a lot of coverage of elections from a broad perspective and we wanted to look at this
momentous day in our democracy with a microscope,” said Chevigny. “We learned that the
promise of ‘one-person, one-vote’ is alive and well, but the reality of it is substantially more
complicated.”
www.ElectionDaytheMovie.com