Street Fight 
Documentary (83 min.)

There's a saying that democracy is a contact sport. The new film "Street Fight" gives you a ringside seat. Even if you know the outcome from national reports, or lived in Newark at the time, this insider's chronicle of the 2002 race for mayor in Newark, New Jersey is riveting, delivering a dramatic account of youthful energy and ideals running headlong into old-guard machine politics and racial demagoguery. These opposing forces are, of course, nothing new in American elections. But, in Newark in 2002, a black mayor was using these tactics against a black challenger.

Early on, a staffer for Cory Booker, the upstart challenger in the race, warns that this election will be decided in the streets. "Street Fight" lives up to the staffer's prediction — and to its own title — as the campaign between Booker and four-time Mayor Sharpe James devolves from dirty tricks to intimidation to the threat of worse. The film crew itself becomes a target for Mayor James' supporters — and the mayor himself — who see everyone as either for them or against them.

The mayor claims that Booker is funded by right-wing white interests, and anonymous fliers charge that he is part of a Jewish conspiracy; he is, in the language on the street, not "black enough." The mayor's campaign turns Booker's education and success — not to mention his lighter skin — into evidence that he is a "great white hope."

The race turns uglier as city police show up at public housing projects to bar Booker from canvassing for votes. Local merchants who display Booker signs, or hold house meetings for him, find their businesses raided and closed down for code violations. Anyone doing business with the city is made to understand they must support the mayor. Public housing residents fear eviction; city employees fear demotion.