Watch Street Fight For Free

Too much of everything

Sick Product of a Sick System

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Man, city politics is probably the most soul-killing, mind numbing public spectacle we humans witness from time to time. As evidenced in Street Fight, the chronicle of Sharpe James/Corey Booker mayoral race, one clearly sees the struggle between the bought James & the idealistic Booker fighting for a city that quite possibly doesn't care how the election will turn out since the outcome, to some, is obvious. Next to Illinois, New Jersey has the stench of political corruption on the city level so much so John Sayles created a fictional NJ town in his film, City of Hope, to showcase the rampant malaise affecting his berg. Now in this documentary, we see the corruption & graft in the flesh and we're fascinated by it but not really surprised. Corey Booker has gone on to become a state senator and even his 'successful' stint as a mayor is being recalled as problematic by the electorate which put him there. Can anyone escape the taint of the public calling?

Most politically charged films focus on corruption at the higher levels of state, but STREET FIGHT gives us a curb-side view of something much smaller ...and much more important.The 2002 Newark, New Jersey Mayoral race is something most voters in the U.S. could care less about. Why should someone in, say, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania pay attention to Newark's voting issues? Or someone in Fort Worth, Texas? Or San Francisco, California? Realistically, none of them would. But Newark is New Jersey's most populated city, and those in San Francisco and beyond might want to take a peak at what's happening to our democracy on a pseudo-microcosmic level.The film's primary focus is on Cory Booker, a Newark city councilman with his eye on the mayor's office. He's a Stanford and Yale graduate who lives in a slum within Newark. He's an idealist who's grown tired of his city's poor schools, poorer neighborhoods, and rising jobless rate. To get into the mayor's office, though, he'll have to unseat four-time incumbent Sharpe James, a man who's firmly entrenched within Newark's politics.We watch as writer/director/photographer Marshall Curry seeks to interview both sides of the race, first by checking in on Cory Booker's campaign, then by trying (in vain) to meet up with Sharpe James and his people. But once James' campaign personnel learn that Curry interviewed Booker already, he is immediately shunned and pushed aside (often in a very rough manner). Curry's camera is pushed around time and again, his microphone broken, and he's denied access to Sharpe James entirely. Even when Curry catches up with James at a public event, he's manhandled by Sharpe James' 'brute squad.' Most will find this very unsettling, as this is a publicly elected figure in a public place who is, in essence, acting like a thug.That we never touch on the political issues surrounding the campaign is interesting and absurd. These are both positive aspects of the film. It shows us how little our democracy means in many instances; it isn't the poor schools/neighborhoods/jobs that dominate voters' discussions, but who's "more republican" or "more black" (both candidates are black) or "campaign has more money" or "has visited a strip joint".In the end, we watch Sharpe James use every slimy tactic at his disposal in order to win votes (including bringing in paid James' supporters from out-of-state to help bolster support on election day). Booker doesn't win the election, thus giving the viewer a very negative view of New Jersey politics. But all is not gloom and doom.In 2006, Cory Booker returned to the mayoral race and took Newark by storm. Sharpe James uncharacteristically dropped from the race for unknown reasons while a new runner took up position against Booker, only to be squashed in the largest landslide win of any mayoral race in New Jersey history.But the bitter taste of the 2002 race still lingers in audiences minds after watching Street Fight. It's a tough film to watch, because we all want to believe that our democracy is flawless when, in fact, it has so many problems and shady dealings as to make one ill at the prospect.

"Street Fight" is fascinating even for New Yorkers who knew the outcome of the Newark, NJ mayoral race in 2002 between long time incumbent Sharpe James and challenger Corey Booker. But what we thought we knew came from the local press and TV news and first time documentarian Marshall Curry almost single-camera-edly shows up The New York Times, The Newark Star Ledger and the broadcast outlets of the supposed media capital of the world in exposing what really goes on in a local election. I worked many years ago in the government office of a party boss in Queens (as was once said about Gov. Harriman and Tammany, like the clean collar on a dirty shirt) and I was still enthralled and taken aback by this raw examination of retail--and even more-- racial politics.Curry's motivation going in was quite simple on the face, that there hadn't been a close examination in a black majority city of a 21st century race between two African-American candidates. He claims he originally wanted to do a balanced portrait of both sides, but James's campaign instinctively and forcefully shuns him -- quite dramatically in the Land of the Free that is forcing democracy on the rest of the world-- so that his coverage is more and more pro-Booker, which drives the James forces to blockade him (much like Michael Moore going against General Motors in "Roger and Me").Becoming persona non grata despite the promises of modern ineffectual flaks, he has to personally admit defeat to cover all the campaign himself by enlisting another cameraman (white or black we aren't shown) to film James's epithet-filled public campaign appearances. He cagily gets the last word in against this censorship to catch on tape James's outrageous demagoguery that plays on prejudices spinning against an educated "carpetbagger" and outright lies about facts that is startling that the conventional media wasn't documenting. Curry effectively raises the charge against the media's apathy for a black vs. black race in a poor city --the other reporters only begin to get a little curious when they see Curry rough housed by James's henchmen.While the story line becomes the machine vs. the reformer, the details on just how a machine baldly runs roughshod using every card of power and class at its disposable is old-fashioned personal hardball against every visible supporter of Booker that is a powerful story on screen.This is visually even more pernicious than Claude Rains's tactics against Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and makes those polling strategists on "West Wing" look like press conference wimps. This is very much the Newark portrayed in "The Sopranos", where behind the scenes wheeling dealing contractors of dubious ethics bring out the money and the votes. You start feeling like you are watching an election in a third world country as Booker supporters put their livelihoods on the line in a graphically visual representation of the line from "Good Night, and Good Luck" "The fear is in this room."We do only get a brief biographical outline of each candidate, which for all of Booker's earnestness does leave him open to the blunt nativist charges of an inexperienced, suburban Ivy League outsider suddenly discovering the hood by theatrically living in a housing project, shockingly equating him to a Jew, playing on light vs. black-skinned perceptions. We do see his access to suburban campaign contributors. Amongst the insightful interviews with Booker's multi-racial supporters and campaign staff, the most moving were the tearful ones upset at these charges. One woman is in excruciating pain as she protests against the contempt for him as a role model for young black men: "We keep telling them to get educated and then this happens when they do." The audience gasped when at the end of the campaign each side seeks outside supporters and the Rev. Al Sharpton, no stranger to fomenting racial division in the NY area, comes down from his suburban NJ home to support the Mayor.As a film, this works more than just as a PBS Frontline episode with excellent use of editing and music building suspense through the chronology, though it does seem to be a Booker in 2006 campaign film at the end.Even though my husband has worked under five NYC mayors and could relate to how bureaucracy can be politically manipulated, he felt there was not enough insight on campaign strategy, preferring the approach in "The War Room", which I haven't seen completely and wasn't able to find to watch in a timely fashion for review comparison. He wanted to get a better understanding from the inside of the campaign decisions. We saw this film at a crowded pre-Oscar run in NYC with a very responsive, racially mixed audience including many Newarkers. The guy next to me felt the film left out a key reason for Booker's loss -- that he had neglected to drum up voter registration, which James's forces had marshaled in advance. This film certainly made me wish that someone had been similarly documenting the 2000 Presidential election in Florida as one wonders how much of American balloting would stand up to monitoring, though the Justice Dept. was barely of help in Newark on Election Day.

This film won the audience choice award at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it certainly deserved it. Amazingly enough, this is Marshall Curry's first film. I truly hope to see more films from him.While the subject of national and international politics has been the subject of many critically acclaimed documentaries, Street Fight concentrates on the 2002 Mayoral election in one urban city, Newark, N.J., which is wracked by homelessness, drug addiction and poverty. The movie is perhaps one of the most compelling and interesting documentaries I have ever seen. The film's title is quite appropriate because Television ads are meaningless, but rather these hard-fought battles are won on the street.The film's director tried to follow the campaigns of both the incumbent Mayor, Sharpe James, who has been Mayor for 16 years and the campaign of the upstart 1st term Councilman, Cory Booker. While the Booker campaign welcomes the filmmaker, Mayor James is less welcoming and outwardly hostile. The film quickly evolves into a compelling David vs. Goliath epic.You'll watch as Mayor James instructs the Newark police officers act like Storm Troopers intimidating and assaulting campaign workers blatantly violating state and federal law. You'll be outraged as you watch those same police officers attack the film's director in broad daylight on the sidewalks in an attempt to shut down the documentary. Mayor James paints himself as a political villain more despicable than Senator Joseph Paine from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The scary part is that the film is not fictional. Had it not been recorded on film, you would not believe it. It's not often that a film angers me. This one did.Booker tries to campaign on the issues, but we see how effective James' tactics are. Both candidates are Black, but Mayor James constantly refers to Booker as light-skinned and "white" because Booker was educated at Stanford, Yale Law School and was a Rhodes Scholar. Looking at the numerous dirty tricks employed in the campaign, it is no wonder that Sharpe James has never lost an election. Although Booker loses the election, he wins the moral battle and the audience by running an ethical and admirable campaign. The closing scene is Booker's unveiling of his 2006 campaign, which received an ovation from the Tribeca audience.