The award-winning PBS documentary "Election Day" will be shown at the University of Illinois at Springfield beginning at 7 p.m., Monday, October 20, in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library on the UIS campus.
Sponsored by the UIS Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center, the event is free and open to the public. A short panel discussion will follow the film.
A political film that is not about candidates or politics, but instead explores the "street-level experience of voters," "Election Day" challenges viewers to think about the nature of American democracy and whether actual practices adequately achieve national ideals.
On November 2, 2004, director Katy Chevigny sent 14 film crews to shoot simultaneously from dawn until long past midnight. Together they captured 11 stories over a range of locations, from major cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and New York; to middle-sized cities like Dearborn in Michigan, Cincinnati and Shaker Heights in Ohio, and Orlando and Quincy in Florida; to the little town of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and the even tinier Stockholm, Wisconsin; to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The results have been called "as fast-paced and suspenseful as a thriller" with heroes who are "ordinary Americans determined to vote, to turn out others to vote, and to see that the voting is legally and fairly done."
This event is presented in collaboration with the award-winning documentary series P.O.V., produced for PBS by American Documentary, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to presenting contemporary nonfiction stories that express opinions and perspectives not usually covered by mainstream media.
For more information, contact the UIS Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center at 206-7716 or send an e-mail to volunteer@uis.edu.
