August 7 — Watch the film “By the People: Democracy in the Wild.”
One of the great examinations of democracy in action focuses on ordinary Hoosiers scrambling desperately to make an election work.
When: Thursday August 7, noon to 1:00 PM
Where: Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, Cole Porter Room
Free and open to the public
This comes from the filmmakers:
BY THE PEOPLE is an insider’s look at who and what it takes to put on an American election. Set in Indianapolis, Indiana – a blue city inside a longtime red state – as events unfold over the 11 days leading up to and including the 2004 Presidential election, this unprecedented documentary vividly reveals the myriad of activities required to maintain the most basic element of democracy—our right to vote. For many Americans, elections are a mind-numbing barrage of media hype, sloganeering and partisan animosity. Little attention is paid to the real work that goes on. Armed with an unflinching eye, a storyteller’s sensibility and a sense of humor, first time director Malindi Fickle dramatically captures average Americans of all political stripes working side by side to insure that everyone in Indianapolis who wants to vote is able to vote. The result is a refreshingly honest, surprisingly funny and unexpectedly inspiring story about the guts of our political process.
BY THE PEOPLE follows County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler, a young elected official with her career on the line, as she and her small crew of government employees, together with a dedicated but aging band of volunteers, struggle to make the election possible. After witnessing their chaotic battle against time, lack of resources and political obstacles, you will never again take your right to vote for granted.
Against the backdrop of the most highly charged election of our time, BY THE PEOPLE gets to the real heart of democracy and becomes a rallying cry against the apathy that is undermining our most precious right.
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
This is a gem of a movie, and it was filmed right here. Political science textbooks rarely discuss the nuts-and-bolts challenges of getting ballots to polling stations, and collecting them in a trasnparent and reliable method. The Florida debacle in 2000 sensitized many to what could go wrong … “By the People” shows how hard so many people have to work to make sure debacles don’t occur. By the way, the first election after Doris Anne Sadler left the County Clerk’s office was that debacle … it would have made a sad sequel to this film. See it.
Know before you go:
Visit the film’s website: as it makes clear, the struggle never ends. The film’s director Malindi Fickle says: “The specific conditions of elections vary from county to county - state to state, but the scope of the overall task remains the same. While elections continue to be a hornet’s nest of issues from election laws to voting machines, the one fundamental truth is that we need people. Today in the US we are 500,000 people short of staffing the polls sufficiently – not well – but adequately. The average age of a poll worker is 72. How many 90 year olds does it take to make an average age of 72?”
