This is an odd little film that follows a rather small-time election in New Jersey. Considering that Bogota, NJ is so tiny, the fact that this documentary was made is unusual to say the least. However, even though there are only about 4000-5000 residents, what happens in the election is in many ways a microcosm of larger elections. The same muckraking, half-truths and dirty tricks you might see in a presidential or senatorial race are definitely here--and probably more so!
Bogota has a budget problem and the people seemed very angry that sports were going to be cut from the high school's budget or that some were considering consolidating their tiny school district with another. While I felt that many who were angry about this were unreasonable (after all, they wanted lower taxes and more services), the incumbent mayor's demeanor was incredibly insulting. In short, he came off as a real jerk. As for the opposition, the Democratic candidate had practically no charisma, charm or apparent leadership ability. So, not surprisingly, a third party write-in candidate appeared on the scene and the election got very, very ugly.
In addition to all the hysteria and electioneering, another interesting aspect of the film is that two of the three candidates were legally blind (one due to a tumor the other to retinitus pigmentosa--a degenerative condition). In a darkly funny portion of the film, the blind incumbent complained that the other blind guy wasn't really THAT blind and was milking it for sympathy!! Considering that the tumor guy soon died after the election makes this argument all the more dark and horrible!! The bottom line is that this was a savagely dark civics lesson and was interesting despite the small scale. However, the film occasionally is rather crude (the language of two of the candidates was rather salty to say the least) and the technical aspects of the film were less than superb--though certainly not bad enough to make the film unwatchable or hard to enjoy.
Bogota has a budget problem and the people seemed very angry that sports were going to be cut from the high school's budget or that some were considering consolidating their tiny school district with another. While I felt that many who were angry about this were unreasonable (after all, they wanted lower taxes and more services), the incumbent mayor's demeanor was incredibly insulting. In short, he came off as a real jerk. As for the opposition, the Democratic candidate had practically no charisma, charm or apparent leadership ability. So, not surprisingly, a third party write-in candidate appeared on the scene and the election got very, very ugly.
In addition to all the hysteria and electioneering, another interesting aspect of the film is that two of the three candidates were legally blind (one due to a tumor the other to retinitus pigmentosa--a degenerative condition). In a darkly funny portion of the film, the blind incumbent complained that the other blind guy wasn't really THAT blind and was milking it for sympathy!! Considering that the tumor guy soon died after the election makes this argument all the more dark and horrible!! The bottom line is that this was a savagely dark civics lesson and was interesting despite the small scale. However, the film occasionally is rather crude (the language of two of the candidates was rather salty to say the least) and the technical aspects of the film were less than superb--though certainly not bad enough to make the film unwatchable or hard to enjoy.