The Teletubbies children's program usually begins with the sun rising and a cute baby's face in the center of the sun, giggling in view of the lush, green landscape below.
Envision George W. Bush's head in the place of the baby's, and picture him shooting lasers out of his eyes at the cute bunnies below him.
The fourth and final installment of "Visions and Decisions," a series that gave the Buffalo public four nights of political documentaries relevant to this year's presidential election, began this way Saturday night at the Langston Hughes Center.
That scene, by Brian Boyce, was the evening's first film clip.
The featured documentary, "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" by Joan Sekler, attracted a small crowd that was could be described as Rastafarian. The film, narrated by Danny Glover, focused on the battle for presidency that took place in Florida, and how, in the director's eyes, citizen's rights were undermined.
"People are not getting their news on the TV anymore. The news and media are biased, and there's finally steam picking up with people going to entertainment venues to see documentaries," said Marc Moscato, who worked with Joanna Rac in organizing the festival. "I want to provide a forum for people to become educated on the issues in the election."
The consistently left-wing viewpoints expressed in the documentaries leave one to wonder about the bias of the filmmakers.
"We're a nonprofit group receiving money from public funding and private donations, so we can't be partisan," said Moscato. "I have a definite agenda, but I'd like to present a whole bunch of different viewpoints. I wanted to show some conservative films, but the maker of 'Michael Moore Hates America' did not reply to me."
"Unprecedented" shows people leaving the polls distraught: Some confused about the butterfly ballots, some refused the right to vote for suspicious reasons, even some being accosted by police for "loitering" while they were queuing to cast their ballots. It also took a brief look at Jeb Bush's governorship, and how he consistently either ignored the black community or violated their rights.
Most Americans are well aware that George Bush won the election in a state that is governed by his brother. Not as many are aware that Florida State Secretary Katharine Harris, who was largely responsible for purging voters and putting an end to the recount, was a co-chair of the Bush's presidential campaign.
The film offered strong evidence of a massive purging of black and Democratic voters. Thousands and thousands of primarily black voters who had successfully voted in the past showed up on Election Day 2000 to find that their names had vanished from voting lists. In many instances, people were accused of being ex-felons and were denied the right to cast their ballots, even though in a startlingly large number of instances, they were not felons. In one county alone, when an examination was held of the list of people who had been purged, they confirmed 33 ex-felons from a list of 690 who were accused.
UB senior English major Amy Godfrey drew some interesting comparisons between "Unprecedented" and the popular Michael Moore film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"I thought it was done really well. 'Fahrenheit 9/11' was very entertaining, but very biased. This one was more straightforward and information-based," she said. "Michael Moore used facts to suit his opinions, but this one drew conclusions from the facts."
"Unprecedented" is a surprisingly scholarly and intellectual political film in a period of quite biased documentaries, like Jehane Noujaim's "Control Room."
"Unprecedented" ends by warning Americans about the future, and how touch-screen voting will not wipe the problem away. According to several people interviewed, an election held by computers is much easier to rig, with no tangible evidence of a person's vote.
Moviegoer Chris Barbera carefully considered his reaction to "Unprecedented."
"It reaffirmed my commitment to work for justice. It clarified a lot of the sins this nation still has: slavery, warfare and oppressing the poor," he said. "It clarified the mechanisms that the corporate elite are using to maintain their power. When we have information we become more empowered to address these things."
"I'm aware of the general state of things, but these movies bring out the details. It's not even about political philosophy, it's maintaining human rights."
Another short and entertaining Boyce clip parodied FOX News. It began with the headline, "Real Fascism: Fair and Unbalanced," and went on to tweak one of the conservative's voices so that he was admonishing viewers to "Kill everyone."
The final film of the series was the wonderfully executed "Horton Hears A Human" by Joseph Hilsenrad. The director altered Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who" cartoon to offer a general message commanding people to vote.
Hannibal da Soldier, of the Buffalo Soldiers, a three-man rap group, particularly enjoyed the venue for the event.
"It's underground, it's not like something you'd find in a movie theater," he says about "Horton Hears A Human." "It was subliminal. It was funny, but it touched on some deep bases. It's what we need."
Moscato echoed the sentiment of every American interested in politics at this time, regardless of party affiliation.
"I'm very concerned about it. I'm very concerned about the welfare of our country. This is the most important election of our times."