Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the World Premiere at the 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival)
Director: Kelly Nyks
Starring: Noam Chomsky, Robert Putnam, Norm Ornstein, Tucker Carlson, Al Franken, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jack Hitt
Nyks begins his documentary by exploring the remarks about which the media has been making a fuss for the past eight years: this country is deeply divided... culture war in this country... reds and blues... rural vs. urban... a country split by race, religion, economic disparity...
So, setting out from the Southwest on a journey cross-country to the Northeast, Nyks puts microphones in front of democrats, republicans and the anybody elses on the street, and asks them to address six questions that struck at the fundamentals of what divides us, trying to come to terms with the cause of the conflict.
Journalists, media commentators, civil libertarians and evangelists each get their say on the issues at hand - and Nyks, by serving up the information in bite-sized topical chunks, keeps the conversations tight and on point. By mixing the media with superb graphic animation by Mary Hawkins and Chris Hutchinson, as well as visual effects by Jason Martin, film clips and narrated cheat sheets that help keep track of historical context, Nyks not only helps us digest the discourse, but forces us to enjoy it.
An enjoyable, bipartisan documentary about the polarized political landscape??? What is the world coming to??? Well, I guess we'll find out at the end of the year... or perhaps in another 20 years when we're able to look back at this moment and marvel at the political map of the United States, painted in purple.
Image courtesy of Split Films.
www.splitdoc.com |
