August 18, 2006
movies: bonnie britton
Election film draws praise

As they used to joke, vote early and often, not for a candidate but for "By the People," a documentary shot in Indianapolis, screening at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Landmark's Keystone Art Cinema and Indie Lounge.

A private screening was held last year in Indianapolis; now it's the public's turn.
"By the People" was filmed in 2004, capturing an insider's view of the election process by focusing on Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler and her staff over 11 days leading up to the presidential election.

Billed as a nonpartisan look at what it takes to pull off an election, the movie was inspired by director Malindi Fickle's brother Tim, a young, idealistic deputy clerk who told his sister about the frustrations of trying to prepare for the big day.  Besides the obvious challenges of new voting machines, changes in the election laws and lawsuits waged over ballot design, there were people problems -- not enough volunteer poll workers.  So Fickle, a North Central High School and New York University graduate whose background includes New York theater work, set out to cinematically "get under the skin" of the election process, and to motivate people to participate.

The movie was primarily friends-and-family-financed. Fickle, traveling across the country this summer to promote the movie, said her brother was "straight out of IU and would tell me these outrageous stories of how they didn't have enough people. I watched him go from 'let's go save the world' to being so frustrated."
Fickle said she met with Sadler about 10 days before filming started. "It was really guerilla film-shooting at its best."
By telephone, Fickle said that by Election Day, she had three teams in place working on the movie, including her "sound guy," local filmmaker John Blankenship, and Kris Lienert, also from Indianapolis, the director of photography, who "had a rig on that forced him to move like a robot. When he would take the camera off at night, he'd still walk like that."

Outside of Indianapolis, the most surprising thing has been how applicable the film's story is across the country, she said. Fickle called her reaction "over the moon" when she saw the New York reviews.
"By the People" opened in Manhattan July 28, and New York Times reviewer Nathan Lee called it "heartbreaking in its idealism."  New York Magazine called it "remarkable verite" and said the "results are mesmerizing."
The feature-length film is in limited nationwide release this summer and will be shown on PBS stations in October.
As in other cities where the film has played, election board members will be at the theater Wednesday and Thursday to register moviegoers to vote and to volunteer as poll workers. Fickle and cast members, including Sadler, also will attend.