''American Blackout'' (2006) is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by Ian Inaba. It premiered at the 2006

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. The film chronicles the 2002 defeat, and 2004 reelection, of Congresswoman

Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is an American politician, academic, and conspiracy theorist. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first African American ...

to the U.S. House of Representatives; it also discusses issues surrounding alleged voter

disenfranchisement Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

and the use of

voting machines A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...

in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

Background

The film focuses heavily on McKinney, and claims that her 2002 loss in a Democratic primary to

Denise Majette Denise Lorraine Majette (born May 18, 1955) is an American politician from the state of Georgia. A Democrat, she represented Georgia's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2005. Biography Born in ...

(who, like McKinney, is

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

) was part of an effort to disenfranchise minority voters. McKinney claims that Republican voters in her district tipped the primary election to Majette. This itself is legal, as Georgia law opens primaries to all voters irrespective of party. After losing, McKinney filed a lawsuit claiming that open primaries are a violation of the 14th Amendment, but a court dismissed the case. The film also includes civil rights leader and U.S. Representative

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

with a powerful recounting of the march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Also future Presidential Candidate

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

appears in this documentary speaking about the desire of big money to keep voter turnout low. The documentary won the Special Jury Prize (Documentary Jury) at the 2006

Reception

Upon its release, the film received generally favorable reviews from contemporary cinema critics, with a score of 77% on review aggregate site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 13 reviews. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' designated the documentary as a "NYT Critics' Pick", with critic Jeannette Catsoulis writing that although it is "occasionally inflammatory", the film is not "a conspiracy rant", but rather "a methodical compilation of questions and irregularities that deserves a wider audience".

Awards

The film was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

References

External links

* *
American Blackout on Facebook

American Black Movie viewable in its entirety

Official Web Site

Review by Zach Roberts
Sundance Film Festival award-winning films 2006 films American documentary films History of voting rights in the United States Documentary films about elections in the United States Films about the 2000 United States presidential election Cynthia McKinney Politics of Georgia (U.S. state) Documentary films about Georgia (U.S. state) 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{poli-documentary-film-stub

Background

Reception

Awards

See also

References

External links