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"Street Fight" Comes to Campus


PLATTSBURGH, NY (October 16,2007)- As part of the American Democracy Project, Marshall Curry's Academy Award nominated film, "Street Fight," will be shown at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. in Yokum Hall, room 202.

A student-moderated discussion will follow the screening of this Point of View (P.O.V.) film. Attendees will have a chance to discuss issues raised by the movie with professors, independent filmmakers, and others in the audience.

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"Street Fight" is a riveting story about the underbelly of American democracy. When Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Yale Law grad, takes on the four-term mayor of Newark, NJ, he gets an education in the politics of the streets. The city's political machine unleashes a campaign of harassment and voter intimidation, and the race unfolds amid accusations of terrorism, a Watergate-style burglary, and sexual scandal. When the election becomes racially charged - a surprising twist for a battle between two African-American candidates - voters are forced to ask what it means to be "really black" in America today.

This film has won numerous awards, including the Audience Awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, AFI/Discovery SilverDocs Festival, and Hot Docs Festival. It has also received the Jury Prize for Best International Documentary at Hot Docs and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award. In 2006, it was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy. It was called "extraordinary" by David Denby (The New Yorker), "vastly entertaining" by John Anderson (Variety), and "filmmaking of the first order" by Scott Foundas (L.A. Weekly).

P.O.V. is an award-winning series produced by American Documentary for PBS. Since 1988, it has presented over 250 of the most important documentary films of our time. Their films, coupled with their unsurpassed national reach and local collaborations, have brought powerful documentary storytelling into people's lives, and brought public dialogue on issues of national importance to a new level.

Refreshments will be provided by the American Democracy Project, a multi-campus initiative that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates.

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This event is sponsored by the American Democracy Project, Mountain Lake PBS, and SUNY Plattsburgh's Student Association, Center for Diversity, Pluralism and Inclusion, Institute for Ethics in Public Life and Center for Student Involvement.

For more information on P.O.V. films, go to their website, www.pbs.org/pov .

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