We’re coming down to the wire of US politics in 2020, with just a few weeks to go until Election Day. Concerns around voting rights are intense — fair access to polls, the ability to mail ballots, registration issues, as well as racial and class equity in all of these realms. To spark civic engagement, independent theater Metrograph and the film curation forum Creatively Speaking have teamed up for an online screening series this weekend. We the People: Shoestrings of Democracy presents a program mainly of recent short films about voting issues (the title is a nod to a work by Nari Ward).
Capturing the Flag (2018) follows an activist group distributing information for voters in North Carolina. Keon (1998) observes how a trio of young Black men have to navigate both small and large social and administrative obstacles while trying to run a simple errand. Voting Matters (2018) features a civil rights attorney helping people initially turned away from the polls to cast their votes. These and other films in the series highlight myriad ways that people are obstructed from the most fundamental, basic element of democracy. This year, such issues are more important than ever.
When: October 17-19
Where: Online via Metrograph
