Documenting the events in a London pub where several hundred people have gathered to watch the results come in. We watch as people's hopes and dreams are either fulfilled or dashed and even how the rising emotions lead to a fist fight.
I am in awe of this film.
Beautifully capturing the mood and the spirit of election night Ryan Scafuro has turned out a little masterpiece of reporting. Yes I know this film is going to be incredibly painful for many people to watch, opening a freshly covered wound on many people's psyche,but at the same time the film captures the moment where everything went crazy.
Scafuro says that he he wasn't trying to make one of the great films about that night or the election but I think he may very well have backed into it. Focusing on one pub thousands of miles away from ground zero he has gained the ability to not be caught up in the circus that was the election. By reducing it down to one place and one group of people he has cut away the bullshit of the rah rah crap and mindless fear that gripped America and made something more universal. Here we see people who aren't on for the cameras who have sides but aren't in battle lines. Instead Scafuro has reduced America (by way of England) down to what it really is just a bunch of people hanging out in a bar hoping for the right thing to happen.
You may not realize what is here but trust me this is as vital and important document about where we are and how we got here as we are likely ever to see. This is going to be one of those films that ten years down the road when the present uncertainty is gone we'll use to look back on and see what it was like. Yes there will ne CNN and Fox News docs on the election but they will focus on the circuses and the divisions, and while that was true that's not the world most people live in- most people live in a world that isn't as extreme as the pundits make it out to be- it is a world that is exactly like this bar in London where several hundred people gathered to watch the results come in.
This film is a must see. I know for many of my friends and readers the thought of revisiting that night this past November is daunting but trust me there is something about ELECTION NIGHT that softens the blow- not in that what happened rather in that it is a reminder that there are good people out there and and that even there are those who don't agree with you they probably aren't as crazy as the main stream media (or social media) makes them out to be.
ELECTION NIGHT can be viewed here.
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