Streaming Films and Documentaries on Voting and Elections in the United States and Beyond

by Emily Walsh

While the 2020 presidential election votes are still being counted, this list of streaming documentaries and feature films at the AU Library dives into elections and voting behaviors in America and other countries around the world. Enjoy this collection of 15 videos to help take your mind off of the news and learn more about American politics and democracy. To find more streaming videos on similar issues and topics, please visit the Library’s off campus streaming guide.

Breaking the Wall of the Polling Booth : How Electoral Psychology Enlightens Democratic Citizenship

Documentary

What do citizens think about in the polling booth? Despite the latest technological innovations in electoral methods, the voter’s mind has been neglected by academia. Michael Bruter of the London School of Economics aims to fill this gap with his current project funded by the European Research Council. Having published widely in the fields of political behavior, political psychology, identity, public opinion, extremism, and social science research methods, In this Falling Walls lecture, Bruter explores how voters think in 15 countries – combining surveys, interviews, experiments, and direct observation, including innovative techniques such as “election diaries,” “polling station observers,” and “emotional” questions on favorite animal, color, or drink – toward understanding more about the role of personality and emotions in the vote. His project is expected to have a significant impact on our awareness of political identity and electoral decisions, including specific topics like psychology of extremism, voters’ identity, and young people’s participation.

Capturing the Flag

Documentary

A tight-knit group of friends travel to Cumberland County, North Carolina – the 2016 ‘poster child’ for voter suppression – intent on proving that the big idea of American democracy can be defended by small acts of individual citizens. What they find at the polls serves as both a warning and a call to action for anyone interested in protecting the ‘One Man, One Vote’ fundamental of our democracy.

The Elected: Presidency and Congress

Documentary

In an adversarial climate of polarization and power confrontations, how can the U.S. government get anything done? In part one of this program, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the obstacles to bipartisan compromise between the Clinton administration and Congress as well as the difficulties parties have in disciplining their own members in Congress. In part two, Mr. Smith probes the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution in Congress. Smith goes behind the scenes to get Vice President Gore; Clinton executives Leon Panetta and George Stephanopoulos; Congressional leaders Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Dick Gephardt, and Tom Daschle; Democratic loyalists and rebels; Republican freshmen and incumbents; and academic experts to divulge how serious miscalculations torpedoed hopes for both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Free Vote for France

Documentary

This World War II-era newsreel includes the following segments: 1. France holds its first free municipal elections since liberation. 2. Occupation forces in Heidelberg print a newspaper and distribute it to eager citizens. 3. A French ship is loaded with grain and potatoes in Canada; airplanes drop food to the Dutch in a UN operation. 4. German surrenders are received by General Montgomery from Admiral Friedeburg and by General Walter Smith from General Jodl; General Eisenhower speaks.

Generations : American Women Win the Vote

Documentary

For 72 years, from 1848 -1920, generations of women – from every state and every party, of every race and every religion – fought for the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was introduced in Congress 42 years before the House and Senate could muster the 2/3 majority to pass it. And that vote was just the beginning of another round of state battles – the final battle for ratification. This film, covering 72 years of suffrage history, describes the struggle the suffragists faced. Would women gain the right to vote before the 1920 presidential election?

Gerrymandering

Documentary

Gerrymandering is defined as the carving up of a state into districts in a way that allows one political party to gain more clout than another. It has also been called the most effective way to manipulate an election’s outcome short of outright fraud. Focusing on the fight to pass Proposition 11 – drafted to give redistricting power to a bipartisan rather than legislative group – this documentary explores the ethical implications of gerrymandering and looks at some historical examples of how the practice has been used.

Kill Chain: The Cyber War On America’s Elections

Documentary

In advance of the 2020 Presidential Election, Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections takes a deep dive into the weaknesses of today’s election technology, an issue that is little understood by the public or even lawmakers. From directors Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and Sarah Teale, the team behind HBO’s 2006 Emmy®- nominated documentary Hacking Democracy, Kill Chain again follows Finnish hacker and cyber security expert Harri Hursti as he travels around the world and across the U.S. to show how our election systems remain unprotected, with very little accountability or transparency. Hursti’s startling journey is supplemented by candid interviews with key figures in the election security community, as well as cyber experts and U.S. senators from both parties.

Please Vote for Me

Documentary

Two males and a female vie for office, indulging in low blows and spin, character assassination and gestures of goodwill, all the while gauging their standing with voters. The setting is not the Democratic presidential campaign trail but a third-grade class at an elementary school in the city of Wuhan in central China. “Please Vote for Me” chronicles a public school’s first open elections for class monitor, a position normally appointed by teachers. Weijun Chen’s film examining human nature, China’s one-child policy and the democratic electoral process made the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary feature shortlist.

TEDTalks, Carole Cadwalladr-Facebook’s Role In Brexit — And the Threat to Democracy

Lecture

In an unmissable talk, journalist Carole Cadwalladr digs into one of the most perplexing events in recent times: the UK’s super-close 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Tracking the result to a barrage of misleading Facebook ads targeted at vulnerable Brexit swing voters — and linking the same players and tactics to the 2016 US presidential election — Cadwalladr calls out the “gods of Silicon Valley” for being on the wrong side of history and asks: Are free and fair elections a thing of the past?

Vote for Kibera

Documentary

Vote for Kibera is about the people of Africa’s largest slum who have decided, despite the harsh conditions, to transform their merciless environment into a better place to live. Will they make it through the tensions and violence accompanying the presidential elections?

Voting Matters

Documentary

More than 50 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most extensive pieces of civil rights legislation, people of color across the United States still are engaged in a battle to protect their right to vote. VOTING MATTERS follows one dynamic woman working tirelessly on the ground and in the courts to ensure that they are not denied this right. When a key section of the Voting Rights Act was struck down in 2013, several states with a history of racial discrimination immediately attempted to pass laws that further restricted voter rights. This came in the form of limiting the window for voter registration, purging voters with inactive histories and requiring more restrictive forms of ID. There are currently 23 states with such voter restrictions. This film follows civil rights attorney Donita Judge as she helps several voters in Ohio cast ballots even though they initially were turned away.

Voting: Right and Responsibility

Documentary

Why should I vote? Does my vote count? This program addresses these questions and reinforces the importance of voting to the political process.

What 80 Million Women Want

Feature Film

The women’s suffrage movement inspired this 1913 silent film classic, which features appearances by equal rights crusaders Emmeline Pankhurst and Harriot Stanton Blatch. As politicos work to deny women the right to vote, a young lawyer tells his activist girlfriend of government corruption that actively seeks to ensure that her voice is never heard.

Why Trump Won

Documentary

Fareed Zakaria examines how Trump’s own life story—a kid from Queens who crossed the bridge to scale the heights of wealth in Manhattan – yet never quite fit in with the city’s upper crust—helped him forge a powerful connection with Americans who felt they’d been left behind.

who are fighting to secure the integrity of the vote before November 2020.

The Youngest Candidate

Documentary

It’s a timeless story: an idealistic, disadvantaged citizen takes on the status quo and runs for public office. In this case, candidates in four separate races encounter more than just bigotry, sexism, and entrenched interests. They range in age from 18 to 20, which adds yet another barrier to overcome – because while most political machines covet the youth vote, it’s something else entirely when young people want power of their own. The contenders include Raul De Jesus, a mayoral candidate in Hartford, Connecticut; Ytit Chauhan, an Indian-American vying for a city council seat in Atlantic City; George Monger, who spearheaded a move to lower age requirements so he could run for the Memphis city council; and Tiffany Tupper, whose campaign for a school board post in suburban Pennsylvania shows remarkable grit and resolve

Why We Buy DVDs

Yes, I know it’s 2020, but when I’m looking to buy a movie, I opt to buy the DVD, even if it’s slightly more expensive than a digital copy. This is primarily because I’m paranoid — my computer may crash, the file type may be phased out, a company’s server may crash, the company may … Continue reading “Why We Buy DVDs”

Yes, I know it’s 2020, but when I’m looking to buy a movie, I opt to buy the DVD, even if it’s slightly more expensive than a digital copy. This is primarily because I’m paranoid — my computer may crash, the file type may be phased out, a company’s server may crash, the company may revoke my purchase at an undetermined future point, or the company/platform I bought the video through may shut down, leaving me no way to access my purchases. With DVDs, they can’t disappear unless I lend them out to a careless friend, or lose them myself.

I, like many millennials (and honestly most of the entertainment-consuming public) love a good rewatch. I buy DVDs because I want to watch my favorite movies and TV shows again and again, without following the shows to various streaming services. If I want to watch Ten and Donna meet Agatha Christie, I just have to pull my Doctor Who box set off the shelf, not pay for the HBO Max streaming service. Maybe I’m feeling like crap and just want to binge the BBC’s 2009 Emma starring Romola Garai (it’s the best adaptation, fight me). I have it on DVD, so I don’t need to buy a Hulu subscription.

Certain people in my life used to roll their eyes at my DVD collection, but I’m happy to report that society seems to be coming round to my point of view, just look at this op-ed in the New York Times.

Veronica Walsingham makes the argument that DVD box sets are the most economic option for nostalgia viewing, and we here at Media Services agree. In fact, you can rent everything from Friends to Grey’s Anatomy to Spongebob from us… so why not give DVDs a try?

The Myth of Kanopy

We here at Media Services recently changed our Kanopy subscription. Before this semester, library users could watch any Kanopy film at any time, no questions asked. Though Kanopy looks (and markets itself) as the educational equivalent of Netflix or Amazon Prime, instead of paying a flat fee of x dollars/month, the library paid $150 per … Continue reading “The Myth of Kanopy”

We here at Media Services recently changed our Kanopy subscription. Before this semester, library users could watch any Kanopy film at any time, no questions asked. Though Kanopy looks (and markets itself) as the educational equivalent of Netflix or Amazon Prime, instead of paying a flat fee of x dollars/month, the library paid $150 per title.

The cost of Kanopy ate up most of our budget, which is why we switched to a request-only model for two Kanopy collections– Criterion and Kino Lorber. Now, when you want to watch a film from these collections, it has to be approved by our media librarian.

This article from Film Quarterly sums up the Kanopy conundrum quite nicely, and shows that the AU Library isn’t alone in our current predicament.

https://filmquarterly.org/2019/05/03/kanopy-not-just-like-netflix-and-not-free/

Correction 5/15/19- Updated to reflect that only two AU Kanopy collections are request-only. All other Kanopy collections we subscribe to are available for instant viewing.

The Art of the Title

Have you ever noticed the main titles and credits of movies and tv shows? Maybe you haven’t, but the folks over at The Art of thhe Title certainly have. They’d created a beautifully curated website devoted to the title sequences that open and close movies. Billing itself as “the definitive resource for title sequence design, … Continue reading “The Art of the Title”

Have you ever noticed the main titles and credits of movies and tv shows? Maybe you haven’t, but the folks over at The Art of thhe Title certainly have. They’d created a beautifully curated website devoted to the title sequences that open and close movies.

Billing itself as “the definitive resource for title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and video game industries,” the site collects and analyzes title sequences, highlighting them as works of art within a film or tv show. Main title sequences can set the stage for a story, and add to the emotional journey of a film. Closing title sequences can summarize or encapsulate a movie of a tv episode, allowing viewers to process or further examine the story or the issues raised. The Art of the Title analyzes everything from Marvel’s Daredevil to Crazy, Rich Asians, Twin Peaks to the Rio Paralympic Games. You can spend hours reading their write-ups and interviews, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy every minute of it.