Within the opening minutes of the presentation, I was thoroughly hooked. I had to resist the impulse to race back to the computer to look up the history of the mayoral race to find out if Booker had won.
Curry’s viewpoint flickers through Booker’s life, showing bits and pieces of the daily war he waged to attract voters. Curry also goes out on his own to find out more information about Mayor-incumbent Sharpe James. As soon as Curry is recognized as being “part” of Booker’s election campaign, which he wasn’t — though I certainly wouldn’t have blamed him — the filmmaker got ousted. He was given the bum’s rush by the police as well as James’s “constituents.”
This behavior from James’s camp was bizarre and got my attention. I was fascinated. Did a political campaign truly get as seamy as they did in movies and television?
The answer, as it turned out, was yes. In short order, people who supported Cory Booker’s efforts were suddenly closed down by city government agencies. A strip club (interestingly enough, the only strip club in Newark, New Jersey) was shut down when the owner was discovered to be one of Booker’s supporters. Unfortunately, one of Booker’s top aides happened to be there the night that happened. A 16-year-old stripper and drugs were found on the premises.
James’s people wasted no time in using that incident in the news. Only they spun it to make it look like Booker’s guy was a complete lowlife with a secret agenda that Booker should have known about. By this time, I was totally engrossed. This was drama. This was what people tune in for on television and at the movie theaters. I know that Curry didn’t have a hand in planning out the events and that they happened on their own, but the events couldn’t have been written any better to draw out the emotional investment on the part of the viewer.
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