Majority Rules (2024)
- Thu, Sep 19
Director: AJ Schnack Run Time: 92 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2024
Starring: Kelly Tshibaka, Lisa Murkowski, Mary Peltola, Sarah Palin
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
World Premiere, 2024 DC/DOX Film Festival.
Alaska is gearing up to do something that no other state has ever done: Adopting a pair of election reforms that will eliminate traditional party primaries and allow voters to rank their candidates by preference. Just as election workers, citizens, and politicians are beginning to adapt to this new system, the state’s longest-serving Congressman unexpectedly dies, creating an open seat and prompting a special election that will test this system months earlier than expected. As dozens of candidates –including former Governor Sarah Palin– jump into the race for the highly coveted seat, everyone must learn how these new voting reforms will change the rules of campaigning and winning. The surprising outcome in that special election leads to a groundswell of support for election reform in other states and fierce pushback from political parties and partisans, just as the Alaska general election gets underway.
Veteran political documentary filmmaker AJ Schnack (Caucus [2013], Convention [2009]) returns to the campaign trail asking whether these new Alaska reforms, an all-candidate open primary and an instant runoff general election, might be a prescription for what ails the American democratic experiment. Traveling across the country, Schnack and his crew interview reform supporters and opponents, looking at where these reforms are already in place and where they may soon be adopted. The resulting film answers two of our nation’s most pressing questions: How did the American electoral system become so dysfunctional, and can changes to how we vote change our entire system for the better?
About the filmmaker:
AJ Schnack is an award-winning documentarian and visual artist based in Los Angeles. His films have premiered at various prestigious film festivals including Sundance, Toronto, SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals. Schnack’s feature films include the Independent Spirit Award-nominated film Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006), We Always Lie to Strangers (2013), Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (2003). His short film Speaking is Difficult (2016) won an International Documentary Association Award and was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. He is the Founding Director of the Cinema Eye Honors, and he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
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