Uncounted at AFI - The Wrap Up
Last Tuesday night, the American Film Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, hosted a near-capacity screening of UNCOUNTED at their Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. And let me tell you, when you get 400 people who are pissed off about the lack of integrity in American elections all in one place, and then mix in the some rabble-rousing by a veteran broadcast journalist like Bob Edwards, you get a feisty crowd who are not interested in hiding their disdain for a broken electoral system. They were a feisty bunch and their moans, groans, and hisses - all in the right places, of course - were more than clearly audible.
Almost everyone stayed for the follow-up discussion, moderated by Edwards, and featuring Mimi Kennedy of PDA, Matt Segal of Student Association for Voter Empowerment, Rebecca Wilson of Save Our Vote Maryland, Investigative journalist and author Bob Fitrakis, and, of course, filmmaker David Earnhardt.
Not surprisingly, the audience was mostly concerned with what they could do before November to prevent so many of the things that happened in 2004 and 2006 from happening again in 2008. The panel members had many good suggestions (one the podcast of the discussion is up on the AFI websit, we will post it): Bob Edwards shared some great stories about how voting and vote stealing has been with us thourghout or nations 232 year history; Rebecca Wilson spoke specifically about what was going on in Maryland; Matt discussed how the issue affects students; Bob talked about how he sees some of the same patterns of vote purging happening now that he saw happening in 2004. The difference now is that this year’s Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, is responsive and they’ve been working closely together to change laws to prevent too much vote purging. Mimi spoke about what PDA is doing on a national level.
The best part is that a quarter of the attendees walked about with DVDs, responding to the call to share the film with others….the word is spreading….
The next night, in Baltimore, the crowd response was just as visceral…perhaps even more so. Go, Baltimore!