Gerrymandering (2010)

Director: Jeff Reichert

Rating: NR

Running Time: 77 min.

Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Jeff Reichert ponders the troubling prospect that elections in America are decided before the first vote is ever cast by examining how the framework of democracy provides politicians with an entirely legal means of controlling electoral outcomes. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of "gerrymandering" reads: "to divide a territorial unit into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible." As the debate surrounding the reliability of the electoral system rages, the question of how to ensure that the system is more accurate and accountable comes up time and again. Can that broken system ever be fixed? By posing that question, among many others, to governors, state representatives, Supreme Court justices, political strategists, party chairmen, scholars, and journalists, Reichert proposes that the fundamental democratic premise that voters actually choose their elected representative may be a falsehood implemented to create the illusion of democracy.

Featured in: Discovery