Watching “Street Fight” last Tuesday was an eye opening experience to the world that is politics. The documentaries that I’ve usually watched all seemed to be just someone narrating or being interviewed, but Curry’s documentary “Street Fight” was somewhat different. I didn’t really get the sense that anything was being narrated. I felt as though Curry used his camera to really capture and expose to the public a controversial event, which just happened to be an election for mayor of  Newark. I liked Curry’s style of doing documentaries because exposing reality as opposed to being told what happened by a narrator makes the documentary feel more “real”. I think that with this style of documentary, the audience can actually feel the excitement and disappointment of the main character(s).

The movie itself was pretty interesting. The movie basically showed what happened “behind the scenes” as the election for mayor of Newark approached. Curry did a great job at showing Cory Booker’s excitement and disappointment as well as Sharpe James lying personality. The movie showed how tense things can get between candidates for a mayor election and probably for any other political election. It showed how one candidate tries to tarnish the other candidate’s name and how lying can be used to manipulate people to be on your side when voting time comes.

Last Tuesday when I saw the film Street Fight by Marshall Curry, I had no idea what to expect. As a New York City girl who was 6 years old at the time, I had no recollection of the national importance the mayor election between Sharpe James and Cory Booker had on the people of Newark, let alone the nation. Marshall Curry depicts the story of the corruption, emotion, and raw details surrounding the election in his first documentary.

I found the documentary very interesting to watch and felt myself rooting for Cory along with Curry and the rest of his campaign. Even though Booker lost the election to incumbent Mayor James, I was surprised to see how much faith he still kept for himself and for Newark — the man really wanted to see a better Newark rise out of their local government. Booker himself grew up on the streets of Newark and knew the neighborhood well. I loved his genuine commitment to try to make Newark a better city for those who were economically struggling and his will to convince people on the streets why he should become the next mayor of Newark.

One of the moments that struck me the most during this film was during the slander surrounding Booker by his opponent Sharpe James. Booker was accused of being a correspondent with the KKK, that Jews were giving him his money, a lot of really ridiculous accusations in order to keep Sharpe the mayor for the next 4 years. Representatives for James ridiculed Booker for being Stanford and Yale-educated and even went to say he wasn’t part of the true black community because of his light skin. One of Booker’s representatives openly spoke about Booker’s character and believed in him as a good man, as well as his platform. “Don’t hate him because he’s educated, we should be wanting the same for our kids to be like him.”

I loved hearing about what Marshall Curry had to say about his film and what followed after the end of the documentary. Booker eventually went on to become mayor of Newark in 2006 and subsequently the Senator of New Jersey. A lot of people, himself included, were surprised at the success the film has had — it went on to receive an Academy Award nomination — especially since a large part of the work was Curry himself filming the streets of Newark alongside the candidates. I myself am proud to see how far this film has some and can’t wait to see what other works Curry has in store.

This Tuesday I went to see a screening of Marshall Curry’s film Street Fight at the Cornell Cinema. The documentary covered the 2002 race for mayor in Newark, New Jersey in which Cory Booker, a political newcomer, ran against Sharpe James who had been mayor of the city for over 30 years.

I was amazed at the level of corruption that existed in the city government during this race. Curry interviewed many residents who described being threatened by the city police with the loss of their businesses if they openly endorsed Booker, and the film showed footage of police officers tearing down Cory Booker signs on Election Day. Sharpe James himself made derogatory comments about Booker and accused him of being a “carpetbagger” and not really African American. I kept expecting throughout the whole film that Cory Booker would win, so at the end I was very surprised and disturbed that the James political machine was ultimately able to beat Booker through the use of these corrupt tactics.

At the end of the film, Marshall Curry took questions from the audience and talked about the reception of the film. For me the most memorable part of his talk was when he described the international reaction to the film, and how people from all over the world have told him that this race was similar to elections in their hometowns. This film really made me aware of the amount of political corruption that is still present in our society and around the world.