Last week I had the pleasure to watch a screening of Street Fight by Marshall Curry. I was so excited to watch this documentary because I have been keeping tabs on Cory Booker since middle school. I thought I know almost everything about his public life, but I failed to realize that Booker lost the first time he ran for mayor of Newark and the significance of that election. I’m telling you I thought I knew everything from his time at Stanford, Yale, and even the fact that he dated Oprah’s best friend, Gayle King. All I knew was that Booker is a polarizing political figure, and at one point he was mayor of Newark, and that he could potentially run for president in the distant future.

The documentary revealed the vices of the American political system on a local scale. It even looked in to the social dynamics of Newark and how that impacted the election. Booker’s opponent Sly James grew up in the poor side of Newark and had been in public office since the 1970’s, whereas Booker grew up in the suburbs went to an ivy league school and had no experience in office. It seemed like the first time Booker ran for office the people of Newark did not think that he cared about the city, it was as if  he was not the real deal.  Booker was so passionate about making changes for the city. In my opinion Booker did a lot to prove that he was committed to making a better Newark by  living in public housing, going door to door to meet voters,  and by connecting to voters on a genuine level.

It was such a pleasure to have Marshall Curry himself there to answer questions afterwards. I remember asking him a specific question along the lines of how did the Newark election parallel that of Bill de Blasio’s tale of two cities? For some reason toward the end of this documentary all I could think of was Bill de Blasio’s  election and his tale of two cities slogan. Curry eloquently explained the distant parallels and the obvious differences. The whole experience was refreshing. All in all I really enjoy watching documentaries in order to fulfill my weekly requirement.