NEW YORK ā The election has unleashed an avalanche of documentaries like no season before it.
Dozens of films, exploring issues from gerrymandering to white supremacists, have sought to illuminate the many issues and trends voters are confronting at the polls on Tuesday. In a presidential election of enormous stakes, filmmakers have rushed to finish their films before Election Day, to try to inform, sway and entertain the electorate.
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A sense of urgency, in particular, drives many of the films which have streamed, aired on TV and played in theaters in the weeks ahead of Nov. 2. The woeful state of movie theaters due to the pandemic hasnāt enabled a box-office breakout like Michael Mooreās 2004 election-year documentary āFahrenheit 9/11,ā but the sheer deluge of docs this year has put politics at the top of countless streaming-service queues.
Hereās a rundown of highlights from an election-year documentary landside.
ā āAll In: The Fight for Democracyā: Liz Garbus and Lisa CortĆ©sā film details the contested election of Georgiaās governor in 2018, with potentially relevant lessons about voter suppression for 2020. Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate and a producer of āAll In,ā relates her experience in her razor-thin loss to Brian Kemp, a Republican, who as Georgiaās secretary of state had a pivotal role overseeing the election. (Kemp, who won by 50,000 votes, put more than 53,000 voter registrations, most of them from minorities, on hold ahead of voting.) āAll Inā uses Abrams as an entry point for a larger history of disenfranchisement in America. (On Amazon Prime)
ā āAgents of Chaosā: Alex Gibneyās two-part HBO documentary returns to the 2016 election of Donald Trump to investigate claims of Russian interference. Gibney struggles to come to firm conclusions on Trumpās alleged collusion or how much of an effect Russian trolls had. But he makes a powerful argument that Russianās meddling in American democracy is undeniable and remains cause for alarm. The prolific Gibney also this month released āTotally Under Controlā (Hulu), a highly critical portrait of the White Houseās management of the pandemic.
ā ā537 Votesā: Like several of this fallās documentaries, the lesson of Billy Corbenās ā537 Votesā is clear: Vote. The āCocaine Cowboysā filmmakerās HBO movie returns to Florida 2000 to chronicle the divergent paths of strategy employed by high-minded, outfoxed Democrats and more rough-and-tumble, win-at-all-costs Republicans in the historic recount between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The film, produced by Adam McKay, throbs with a Miami beat, outlining the crucial context of the EliĆ”n GonzĆ”lez saga on the all-important Cuban-American vote in Florida. ā537 Votesā is a reminder of how much your vote can matter, and how politized counting it can get.
ā āKill Chain: The Cyber War on Americaās Electionsā: Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and Sarah Tealeās documentary may lead all others in its ability to keep you up at night. The HBO film, relying on cyber-security experts and experienced hackers, details how hackable U.S. voting technology really is. One interviewed hacker describes how he broke into Alaskaās 2016 election system just to see if he could. Another, an election-security expert named Harri Hursti, tracks down supposedly unbreachable voting machines to tinker with their vulnerabilities. He finds a widely used model on eBay, on sale for about $80 each.
ā āSlay the Dragonā: In a voting landscape where district maps take strange, misshapen forms, āSlay the Dragonā is expert at reading between the lines. Barak Goodman and Chris Durranceās film is about gerrymandering, the partisan drawing up of districts to make more elections virtually uncontested. āSlay the Dragon,ā streaming on Hulu, clearly explains the often-complicated manipulations of districts. But it does more than that, tracing how redrawn electoral maps have affected things as disparate as the Flint Water crisis and the election of Trump. Most of all, it shows how gerrymandering has helped fuel our heated politics, removing incentive for compromise.
ā āThe Fightā: The American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed 20 lawsuits this year over voting by mail and more than 400 legal actions against the Trump administration, figures to play a role in any legal challenges in a disputed tally. In āThe Fight,ā streaming on Hulu, documents the ACLU in its battles against the Trump administration, giving an intimate look at the attorneys on the front lines in cases including LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights and reproductive rights. Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despress, the makers of the excruciatingly entertaining Anthony Weiner doc āWeiner,ā captures a legal bulwark in motion, trailing both how cases are built and how their crusading lawyers keep up with the frantic pace.
ā āNot Done: Women Remaking Americaā: Sara Wolitzkyās documentary, which premiered Tuesday on PBS, looks back on the last few years of the womenās movement, starting with the Womenās March the day after the inauguration of Trump -- still the largest demonstration in American history. With interviews including Gloria Steinem, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, Shonda Rhimes and Timeās Up co-founder Tina Tchen, āNot Doneā surveys four turbulent years in an expansive womenās movement that kicked off #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, and is sure to dramatically affect the election.
ā āBoys Stateā: How are younger generations processing the politics theyāve been raised in? Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaineās wildly entertaining documentary, a prize-winner at Sundance now streaming on Apple TV+, answers that question by filming the Boys State camp in Texas, where some 1,100 17- and 18-year-old boys annually gather to create a mock government with two parties, established platforms and fast-moving campaigns. Itās a microcosm of American politics, where some teenagers have gleaned dirty tricks from todayās Washington and others believe idealistically in change.
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP