Street Fight | |
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Directed by | Marshall Curry |
Written by | Marshall Curry |
Produced by | Marshall Curry |
Starring | Cory Booker Sharpe James Al Sharpton |
Cinematography | Marshall Curry |
Edited by | Marshall Curry Rachel Kittner Mary Manhardt |
Music by | James Baxter |
Production company | Marshall Curry Productions |
Distributed by | Argot Pictures (theatrical) PBS (television) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 83 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4,779 |
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Documentaries | ||
Street Fight is a 2005 documentary film by Marshall Curry, chronicling the 2002 Newark mayoral election which pitted upstart Cory Booker against the incumbent Sharpe James for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Other credits include Rory Kennedy (executive producer), Liz Garbus (executive producer), Mary Manhardt (additional editor), Marisa Karplus (associate producer), Catherine Jones (associate producer), and Adam Etline (story consultant). Street Fight screened at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival and was later aired on the PBS series P.O.V. on July 5, 2005, and CBC Newsworld in Canada on May 7, 2006. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The film details the hard-fought mayoral campaign by a young community activist and City Council member (Booker) against a 16-year incumbent mayor (James) with a powerful political machine. The documentary follows Booker and several of his campaign workers from their early days of door-knocking on Newark streets through the campaign's dramatic conclusion.
Through the course of the film, Booker's living conditions, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, political affiliations, and position in Newark are questioned. From 1998 to 2006, Booker lived in Brick Towers, one of the city's worst public housing buildings, which some accused to be a tactic for acceptance by his constituents. As the election campaigns escalate, Booker receives endorsements from Spike Lee, Cornel West, and other prominent African American figures.
The movie brings to light many issues plaguing minority communities in Newark and reveals how the city government has failed to acknowledge these issues. The film also raises questions of race and what it means to be "black", as Sharpe James questions Booker's African American heritage and roots to his community.
Curry captures on film corrupt attempts by James and city employees, including both police and code enforcement, to sabotage Booker's campaign by using tactics that include shutting down local businesses that hold Booker fundraisers, demoting city workers who support Booker and demolishing Booker signs in violation of a standing order by a federal judge, in what becomes a true urban political "street fight".
In one memorable scene, city police assault the documentary maker on a public sidewalk for filming the mayor, breaking the microphone off his camera in broad daylight in front of other journalists.
Booker fell short in his 2002 bid to unseat James. In 2006, James decided not to run for a sixth term of office, and Booker defeated Ronald Rice, winning over 70% of the vote. On July 1, 2006, Booker was sworn in as the 36th Mayor of Newark. Booker went on to become a U.S. Senator for New Jersey.
In July 2007, James was indicted on federal charges. He was convicted in 2008 of five counts of fraud and sentenced to 27 months in prison. [1]
James continued to serve in the New Jersey Senate until January 8, 2008.
Street Fight was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It received a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.08/10. The site's consensus reads: "Street Fight takes an immersive ground-level look at a pivotal political race that proves illuminating, entertaining, and inspiring in equal measure". [2] It also has a score of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [3] It was called "extraordinary" by David Denby (The New Yorker), [4] "vastly entertaining" by John Anderson (Variety), [5] and "filmmaking of the first order" by Scott Foundas (LA Weekly). [6]
Sharpe James is an American former politician from New Jersey. A Democrat, he served as the 37th mayor of Newark from 1986 to 2006 and as a state senator for the 29th legislative district from 1999 to 2008. He is the longest-serving mayor in Newark's history and is a subject of the 2005 feature-film Street Fight depicting the 2002 mayoral election where James faced a closer-than-expected challenge from Cory Booker. Once a popular figure in New Jersey politics, his career effectively ended after he was convicted of high-profile corruption charges in 2008.
Darkon is a 2006 American documentary film that follows the real-life adventures of the Darkon Wargaming Club in Baltimore, Maryland, a group of fantasy live-action role-playing (LARP) gamers. The film was directed by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer.
Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.
Milosevic on Trial, also known as Slobodan Milosevic – Præsident under Anklage, is a documentary by Danish director Michael Christoffersen that follows the trial of Slobodan Milošević from 2002 until his death in 2006. The documentary has won several awards, and has been in competition at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, at Hot Docs '08, and at the 6th Silverdocs festival in Washington DC. The showing at Silverdocs was followed by a panel discussion with former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Wesley Clark.
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).
Teddy Leifer is a British film and television producer. He founded Rise Films in 2006, a London-based production company, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2023.
Ronit Avni is a Canadian entrepreneur, tech founder, human rights advocate, and Peabody Award-winning film director and producer.
Just Vision is a non religiously unaffiliated nonprofit organization that utilizes storytelling, media and public engagement campaigns to highlight Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders working to end the occupation and conflict through unarmed means. They are based in Washington, New York and Jerusalem.
Racing Dreams is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Marshall Curry following two boys and a girl through a season of World Karting Association (WKA) racing as they compete and aspire to become professional NASCAR drivers.
Why Democracy? is a documentary film series produced by The Why Foundation, previously named Steps International. The series consists of 10 films depicting independent documentary filmmakers' personal perception of and experience with democracy. The series was broadcast by 42 different broadcasters worldwide between 8 and 18 October 2007. The series was accompanied by a global interactive conversation about "democracy," which took place in real and interactive space.
Steven Markovitz is a South African film and television producer. He has produced, co-produced and executive-produced features, documentaries and short films. Steven has been producing and distributing for over 20 years. Since 2007, he has worked all over Africa producing documentary series' and fiction. He is a member of AMPAS, co-founder of Electric South & Encounters Documentary Festival and the founder of the African Screen Network.
The World Before Her is a 2012 Canadian documentary film written and directed by Nisha Pahuja and produced by Toronto's Emmy Award winning Storyline Entertainment. The film explores the complex and conflicting environment for young girls in India by profiling two young women participating in two very different types of training camp — Ruhi Singh, who aspires to become Miss India, and Prachi Trivedi, a Hindu nationalist with the Durga Vahini.
Candescent Films is an American film production company that produces and finances documentary and narrative films that explore social issues.
Point and Shoot is a 2014 documentary film written and directed by Marshall Curry. It was produced by Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin and Matthew VanDyke.
Nisha Pahuja is an Indian-born Canadian filmmaker, based in Toronto, Ontario.
Motto Pictures is a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York specializing in producing and executive producing documentary features. Motto secures financing, builds distribution strategies, and creatively develops films, and has produced over 25 feature documentaries and won numerous awards.
David Osit is an American documentary filmmaker, editor and composer. His documentaries include Mayor and Thank You for Playing.
Rachel Lears is an American independent documentary filmmaker. She is the director of Knock Down the House (2019), a documentary film about four women running for Congress in the 2018 midterms, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 and was sold to Netflix for $10 million, releasing on May 1, 2019. Her other documentaries include The Hand That Feeds (2014), about undocumented immigrant workers in a labor dispute with owners at a Manhattan bakery café, and To the End (2022), about climate change.
The 2006 election for Mayor of Newark took place in Newark, the most populous city in the state of New Jersey, on May 9, 2006. Newark is organized under the Faulkner Act. Elections for all seats on the nine member Municipal Council of Newark were held the same day. A runoff election, if necessary, would have taken place. Elections in the city are non-partisan and candidates are not listed by political party.
Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese American director and producer. She was nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for directing the documentary Ascension.