A pointed, well-made documentary, Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election reveals no surprises, no smoking guns, but does provide a disturbing look at an election marred by suspicious irregularities.
Filmmakers Richard Ray Perez and Joan Sekler set out to examine modern America's most controversial political contest, and trace the battle for the presidency in Florida, making a plain argument that democracy was undermined.
Sekler and investigative journalist Greg Palast (interviewed in the film) back up their assertions in appearances at stops along the screening tour of Unprecedented.
USF-St. Petersburg sponsors a free screening, followed by a discussion led by Sekler and Palast, at 7 p.m. Sept. 20, in Davis Hall, Room 130.
WMNF-88.5 FM and the University of Tampa sponsor a screening, followed by a speech by Palast and a discussion, at 7 p.m. Sept. 21, at the Falk Theatre. Note: Tickets cost $10 in advance, $15 at the door.
Sekler is founder of the Los Angeles Independent Media Center, a worldwide network of independent journalists and videographers who produce media on political and social issues. She's also been an associate producer and/or publicist for numerous political documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning film The Panama Deception.
Palast, who reports for the BBC and The Guardian, is the author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Known to WMNF listeners for his speeches on Radioactivity, he was the first to uncover how, between May 1999 and Election Day 2000, two Florida secretaries of state — Sandra Mortham and Katherine Harris — ordered 57,700 ex-felons, who are prohibited from voting by state law, to be removed from voter rolls. This scrub list apparently went out without being cross-checked, however, and kept thousands of legitimate voters from doing so, according to Palast, because their names, gender, birth date and race matched, or closely matched, those of one of the tens of millions of ex-felons in the United States.
For more on what Palast has uncovered, see his article The Great Florida Ex-con Game in Harper's Magazine (March, 2002).
USF-St. Petersburg is located at 140 Seventh Ave., St. Petersburg. 727-893-7465. Falk Theatre is located at 428 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. 813-253-6243.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2002.