USA,
2006, 91 min
Shown in 2007
CREDITS
- dir
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Vanessa Roth
- prod
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Vanessa Roth, Alexandra Dickson Gray, Lindsay Crystal
- cam
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Arthur Yee
- editor
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Lindsay Crystal
- mus
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Adam Cohen, Jeannie Lurie
- source
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Vanessa Roth, Big Year Productions, Inc. FAX: 347-328-1852. EMAIL: vanessa@bigyearprods.com.
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COMMENTS
Vanessa Roth, Arthur Yee and documentary subjects Mick Del Rosario and Sam Arabian attended.
OTHER
Fall 2004. Election season is in full swing and the presidential candidates are out in force, campaigning with gusto and making their platforms known: Curly fries for the cafeteria! New themes for dances! No more chairs attached to desks! Bush and Kerry may be busy debating Iraq and the economy, but for 11 presidential hopefuls from three states, junk food and bathroom stalls are the issues of import in the elections for middle school student government. Election meets Spellbound in this engaging exposé of the Future Politicos of America. At Francisco Middle School in San Francisco, where the student population is mostly Asian immigrant and the torn textbooks are rejects from other schools, candidates Mick and Jenny are full of hope, tempered ambition and awkward adolescence but woefully lacking the support systems they need to truly succeed. At Hall Middle School in affluent Marin County, where parents engage their kids in mock debates and teachers coach candidates in good speechwriting, opinionated, Bush-loving William is up against incumbent “Student Action Man” Sam and pretty blond Katie Kane (destined to win the “popular” vote). In Atlanta, the cutthroat political process tests the friendship of three African American cheerleaders running against each other, while at an Austin, Texas private school, self-proclaimed politically obsessed dynamo Sam seems rested and ready to take on the U.S. Senate rather than just his 13-year-old underdog opponent, Dustin. Against the backdrop of the concurrent Bush-Kerry election battle, The Third Monday in October takes us on an enthralling whistle-stop tour of budding politicians with similar visions of governmental grandeur.
—Joanna Parsont
FACTOID #10
In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which has inspired many women to jump into fountains, was pulled from the San Francisco International Film Festival’s program by the distributor and replaced with Roberto Rossellini’s Night over Rome.
