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We heard from good authority that an interview with Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis and footage shot by Free Press Managing Editor Suzanne Patzer and others from Columbus will be part of a film showing this week at the Sundance Film Festival. Here is the film information:

AMERICAN BLACKOUT
U.S.A., 2006, 86 Minutes, color & b/w
Director: Ian Inaba
www.gnn.tv

Ian Inaba's American Blackout is a stylish, intelligent, and provocative documentary that looks at the historic and systematic disenfranchisement of the black vote through the lens of the political career of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia). George W. Bush's narrow victory in 2000 launched an historic investigation into Florida's election process. Public focus was on dysfunctional ballots and the Supreme Court litigation, but Inaba's inquiry leads him to Congresswoman McKinney, who investigated the private company hired by the state of Florida to generate voter lists, which effectively shut out the black vote and handed Bush an unlikely victory. While tracking McKinney's career, Inaba reveals a host of ways in which black political power is systematically squelched, ranging from the slander that assailed McKinney when she stood up to the Bush administration on 9/11 and Iraq, to the political machinations that disempowered the black vote in the Georgia Democratic primaries and the Ohio presidential election in 2004. Inaba reminds us that African Americans have long fought a war inside our country for their right to vote, and unfortunately that war rages on today. American Blackout emotionally revitalizes the core of our power as American citizens–the right to vote–and effectively reveals that the fate of black voters is inextricably tied to the fate of all Americans.— Shari Frilot

Producer : Anastasia King
Editors : Liz Canning, Ian Inaba, Jean-Phillippe Boucicaut

www.imdb.com/title/tt0492443/

Screening Times
Monday , Jan 23 6:15 PM Holiday Village Cinema III AMERB233E
Tuesday , Jan 24 4:00 PM Holiday Village Cinema IV AMERB244A
Thursday , Jan 26 11:30 AM Prospector Square Theatre AMERB26PD
Friday , Jan 27 1:00 PM Screening Room, Sundance Village AMERB27SD
Saturday , Jan 28 8:30 AM Holiday Village Cinema II AMERB282M


Director(s) Bios


Ian Inaba
In the past four years, Berkeley, California native Ian Inaba has transformed from a strategic advisor and creative consultant to an acclaimed director and producer. In 2000 he cofounded the Guerrilla News Network (GNN), and in 2004 his controversial music video for Eminem's "Mosh" was nominated for MTV's Breakthrough Music Video Award and incited throngs of young people to vote. A former investment banker, Inaba was CEO of Switch Technologies before forming GNN. He is a graduate of the School of Engineering and Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.