Buzz: Documentary on mayoral election in Bogota, New Jersey. Small town quirkiness meets messy local politics.
My Reaction: I didn't set out to watch a bunch of documentaries all in a row, but that's how it turned out -- last night, Out of the Past and The King of Kong (both watched before midnight and thus pre-2009), and then #1 and #2 today. Overall, I was entertained by this one, but I wouldn't stop by your office to tell you about it. There were plenty of interesting things about it: that the challenger (an independent, write-in candidate known as a local sports hero) and the incumbent are both blind, and the way that issue is addressed (or not) by various people in and out of the campaign; the obsession in a small town with high school sports, football in particular; and just the total lack of content in the campaigns -- it really is just a popularity contest, and none of the three are particularly popular. Watching reminded me of many of the same themes as King of Kong -- ego, power, obsession, and living just a little on the fringe. All of politics is local, but only because everything is local in a small town.
film 2 / day 1
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