American Blackout

By Sura Wood
PARK CITY "American Blackout," an engrossing, low-budget documentary, is a powerful examination of voting rights in America. The filmmakers intend to use the film as a political tool to galvanize voters. Director Ian Inaba, who is part of Guerilla News Network, an organization that covers stories the mainstream media overlooks, focuses on the disturbing incidents of voter disenfranchisement among African-Americans, who traditionally vote democratic.

The jumping off point is the 2000 presidential election results in Florida, where many blacks were turned away at the polls. Given the saturation coverage of that election and the fight over the Florida vote count, making this material compelling once again would appear to an impossible feat but Inaba does it.