Street Fight

Iowa Public Television showed this independent political documentary last night, Street Fight, that was really good. It was about the campaign for mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 2002. The director claims it's just a look at the race, but as he's denied access to the incumbent's camp, he focuses on the campaign of Cory Booker, who is 32, Stanford- and Yale-educated, and considered a lightskinned carpetbagger (think of a somewhat younger Barack Obama). We also see the heavyhanded tactics of Sharpe James, who is running for his fifth four-year term, such as intimidating potential Booker supporters who may have business contracts with the city and creating slanderous and blatantly false mass-mailings.

What struck me most, though, was that this was completely ghettoized on the schedule; Sunday night at 11 is basically the death slot. I don't really know why PBS (at least the Iowa network) would do this considering it was really a terrific film. Wouldn't you rather see this than, say, Antiques Roadshow or Ed Sullivan reruns? IPTV hardly ever shows films anyway, so when they do I wish they'd make more out of it, because this, more than bland BBC sitcoms and home improvement shows, is what makes public broadcasting worthwhile.