A Film that is as important as it’s subject matter!
Over the decades, this country has had its fair share of voter fraud and even downright intimidation at the polls, mostly in the southern states but sometimes out West. Voter suppression is an old trick by people intending to fraud a particular county, district, or state. Fine print put into laws that have been passed over the years is a very frequent trick to cause voter fraud. Amendments 14, 15, 16, and 19 were very hard to get put in the constitution. All voter laws. The country suppressed different groups for many years.
Lisa Cortez and Liz Garbus decided that they were going to focus on one particular person to focus their energy and vision on: Stacy Abrams, who ran for Governor in 2018. The film explores how voter suppression affected that election and how government officials running for office shouldn’t be in charge of said election. This led her to make a concession speech mainly focused on voter suppression. This was the start for her becoming an activist against voter suppression not just in Georgia, but around the country.
Voter suppression starts with loopholes in the laws. A lot of Americans don’t pay attention to the little minutiae in the articles that are put in front of their politicians. Sneaky men and women try to get a lot of these laws passed that way. Part of it is the changing of district borders. Separating minorities is a prime example of this. Selma, Alabama in the ’60s was the straw that broke the camel’s back and LBJ and Martin Luther King finally came to terms and helped get passed the law that African-Americans can finally vote. Of course, suppression continued anyway. These towns and states got creative in their suppression this time.
In documentaries, talking heads are important. Who you have talking can sometimes make or break your film. Having them talk too much or too little is also a tightrope act. It’s very difficult to judge. The directors achieved this very well. Some political figures, judges, and elected officials are among the men and women discussing this issue. And they are effective at getting their point across to those watching the film.
This documentary is important for people wanting to learn about the voting process. How voter suppression affects all of us, not just minorities. Yes, Asians, Latinos, and African-Americans have mostly been affected by voter suppression and crooked politicians, but so have women as well. As long as white men run the government, this will continue to happen. This country needs to band together to see what is happening. It’s tearing itself apart from the inside. This coming election is very vital to stop corruption. And get these voter suppression laws out of the constitution and the state constitutions as well.
4 1/2 stars
Dan Skip Allen
Thank You
Sean Boelman
disappointmentmedia.com
From the Fourth Row! 