Contact:                                                                      

Cynthia L�pez, 212-989-7425, clopez@pov.org, 646-729-4748 (cell)

Cathy Lehrfeld, 212-989-7425, clehrfeld@pov.org,   Neyda Martinez, 212-989-7425, neyda@pov.org

Online Pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom

P.O.V.�s �STREET FIGHT�

By Marshall Curry

Winner of Awards at 2005 Tribeca and Hot Docs Film Festivals

Produced in Association With ITVS and P.O.V./American Documentary, Inc.

MEDIA ALERT � FACT SHEET

�Engrossing. . . . pulls no punches when it comes to strong-arm tactics on the part of Mr. James's campaign or his supporters.� � Jason George, The New York Times

�The best American political documentary since 1993's The War Room.� � Desson Thomson, 

The Washington Post

National Air Date:        Tuesday, July 5, 2005 at 10 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.)

Summary:                    Street Fight covers the turbulent campaign of Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law graduate running for mayor of Newark, N.J. against Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent twice his age.  An urban David and Goliath story, the film chronicles the young man�s struggle against the city�s entrenched political machine, which routinely uses strong-arm tactics to hold onto power.  The battle sheds light on important questions about democracy, power, poverty and race. When the mayor accuses the Ivy League-educated challenger of not being "really black," the campaign forces voters to examine how we define race in America.  A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

Filmmaker�s

Statement:                   �In 2001, I became interested in the mayoral election shaping up in Newark, and I began to wonder what it�s like behind the scenes of a local, urban race, where high-priced media consultants are replaced by foot soldiers, fighting door-to-door,� says Marshall Curry.

�I had gotten to know Newark ten years earlier, when I�d taken time off from college to set up a literacy project there, and I had fallen in love with the city.  At that time, Mayor Sharpe James had been in his second term, and in 2001, he was going for his fifth.  James had never lost a race in 32 years and was widely considered the most powerful politician in New Jersey: a king-maker whose support had put governors and US Senators into office.

�But there was buzz about his challenger, Cory Booker.  ��A Newark election,� I was told early on, �is not a televised, gentleman�s boxing match.  It�s a street fight.�  Two dynamic and charismatic candidates, from different generations and widely different backgrounds: What would happen when they got into a ring together?  I bought a camera and spent the next five months finding out. 

�Issues of race seem crucial to politics,� Curry concludes, �and our racial attitudes are more powerful and complicated than most of us usually admit. I hope Street Fight encourages people to look at those attitudes closely and honestly and to discuss them with one another.�

People in the film:        Sharpe James became Newark's longest-serving mayor when he was re-elected for an unprecedented fifth term in 2002, a year after being named New Jersey Conference of Mayors �Mayor of the Year.�  First elected mayor of Newark on May 13, 1986, James was sworn into office on July 1 of that year. He was the first Newark mayor to run unopposed when he sought re-election in 1990 and won re-election in 1994, 1998, and 2002.

James is the 35th mayor of New Jersey's largest city. He is the first Newark councilman to be elected mayor, and only the second African-American elected mayor of Newark.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, where he was born on February 20, 1936, Sharpe James has lived most of his life in Newark. A graduate of Miller Street School, South Side High School (now Malcolm X Shabazz), and Montclair State University, he earned a Master's Degree from Springfield College. He has completed advanced studies at Washington State, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities. He also served with the U.S. Army in Europe. In 1988, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Montclair State University, and, in 1991, an Honorary Doctorate from Drew University.  (Source: http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/City_Government/Meet_the_mayor.htm)

Cory A. Booker , 36, is currently a partner in the Newark law firm of Booker, Rabinowitz, et al., and is also the president of Newark Now, a grassroots nonprofit group; a senior fellow at Rutgers University School of Public Policy and Planning; an honorary Public Interest Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a 2003 Henry Crown Fellow, and a Visiting Associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

In 1997, Cory rose to prominence by upsetting a four-term incumbent to become Newark's Central Ward Councilman, a position he held for four years. In 1997, he served as a staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York, and Program Coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. In December 2002, ESQUIRE Magazine named him one of the country's "40 Best and Brightest."

Booker is a member of the Executive Committee of Yale Law School; Columbia University Teachers' College Board of Trustees; the Black Alliance for Educational Options, North Star Academy, Integrity Inc. and the International Longevity Center. He received a B.A. in political science in 1991 and an M.A. in sociology in 1992 from Stanford University. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received an honors degree in modern history in 1994. In 1997 he earned his law degree from Yale University.  He has announced his intention to seek the mayoralty of Newark again in 2006. (Source: www.corybooker.com)

Filmmaker�s bio:          Street Fight is Marshall Curry�s first feature-length film.  He has worked for many years as a senior producer at Icon Nicholson, a New York multimedia design firm. There he has produced and directed interactive documentaries and Web sites for museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum. 

Through his independent company, Marshall Curry Productions, LLC, he has shot, edited, and directed a number of short films for nonprofits including The Day the Indians Won (for the Rainforest Foundation), which tells the story of the Panara Indians in Brazil who successfully won back their land, and Negril Elementary (for the Rockhouse Foundation), which chronicles an education project in Jamaica.

Curry is a graduate of Swarthmore College where he studied Comparative Religion and was a Eugene Lang Scholar.  He was also a Jane Addams Fellow at Indiana University �s Center on Philanthropy, where he wrote about the history, philosophy, and economics of nonprofits.  He first got to know Newark N.J. in 1991, when he took time off from Swarthmore to set up a literacy program there.

Running Time:             86:46

Awards & Festivals:    

�         Tribeca Film Festival, 2005, New York � Audience Award

�         Hot Docs, 2005, Toronto � Best International Documentary Award and Audience Award

�         Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2005, Durham, N.C.

�         Museum of Television & Radio, 2005, New York

�         SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival, 2005, Silver Spring, Md.

�         Maryland Film Festival, 2005, Baltimore

�         Urban World Film Festival, 2005, New York

Credits:                        Producer/Director/Editor:         Marshall Curry

Director of Photography:         Marshall Curry

Additional Editing:                    Mary Manhardt, Rachel Kittner

Executive Producers:               Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy

Executive Producer for ITVS:    Sally Jo Fifer

Executive Producer for P.O.V.:            Cara Mertes

Original Music:                                     James Baxter

Community Outreach

And Education:            P.O.V. is working with public television stations and national and community-based groups across the country to foster community dialogue around the issues presented in Street Fight.  For a list of upcoming screening and discussion events, go to http://www.pbs.org/pov/utils/povnews.html#events.

P.O.V. is also working with nationally recognized media educator Dr. Faith Rogow to develop a facilitation guide to help event organizers carry out substantive and sensitive discussions around the film�s content.  The guide contains discussion questions and background information on the issues.  LaTanya Bailey Jones is creating a lesson plan. In addition, the American Library Association and P.O.V. are creating a multi-media resource list of related fiction and nonfiction books, websites and videos that further explore the issues in the film.  The materials will be available free of charge at www.pbs.org/pov/outreach on June 24, 2005.

On P.O.V. Interactive:  The Street Fight companion website (www.pbs.org/pov/streetfight) offers exclusive streaming video clips from the film and a wealth of additional resources, including a Q&A with filmmaker Marshall Curry, ample opportunities for viewers to �talk back� and talk to each other about the film, and the following special features:

Newark : A Brief History

From Puritan stronghold to industrial mecca to poor urban center, Newark has undergone many radical transformations. Learn more about Newark's role in US history, the challenges it faces and what this "Renaissance City" has in store for the 21st Century.

Black Mayors: Newark in Context

In 1967 the first black mayors of major US cities were elected, bringing issues of civil rights and progressive politics to the forefront. In the last few years, a new generation of black officials has departed from the civil rights agenda and the Democratic talking points of the previous generation. Who are the faces of this new generation?

Smells Like the Future

Clarence Page, political columnist for The Chicago Tribune, will put the 2002 campaign in Newark into a national context � particularly in regard to African- American politics, the new conservatism, and the differences between the Civil Rights-era politicians and the new crop of young leaders running for office in the 21st century.

About P.O.V.:               Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and now in its 18th season on PBS, the award-winning P.O.V. series is the longest-running series on television to feature the work of America's best contemporary-issue independent filmmakers. Airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m., June through September, with primetime specials during the year, P.O.V. has brought over 220 award-winning documentaries to millions nationwide, and now has a Webby Award-winning online series, P.O.V.'s Borders. Since 1988, P.O.V. has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing social issues. More information about P.O.V. is available online at www.pbs.org/pov.

Major funding for P.O.V. is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Educational Foundation of America, the Ford Foundation, PBS and public television viewers. P.O.V. is presented by a consortium of public television station including KCET/Los Angeles, WGBH/Boston, and WNET/New York. Cara Mertes is executive director of P.O.V./American Documentary, Inc.

To download additional press materials, transcripts and color art, visit P.O.V.�s online pressroom at www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom.