Filmed over the last six months of the 2000 Presidential election, Phillip Seymour Hoffman starts documenting the campaign at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, but spends more time outside, in the street protests and police actions than in the orchestrated conventions. Hoffman shows an obvious distaste for money politics and the conservative right. He looks seedier and more disillusioned the campaign progresses. Eventually Hoffman seems most energized by the Ralph Nader campaign as an alternative to the nearly indistinguishable major parties. The high point of the film are the comments by Barney Frank who says that marches and demonstrations are largely a waste of time, and that the really effective political players such as the NRA and the AARP never bother with walk ins, sit-ins, shoot-ins or shuffles. In the interview with Jesse Jackson, Hoffman is too flustered to ask all of his questions.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Tim Robbins
Susan Sarandon
Michael Moore
Rosie O'Donnell
Jesse Jackson
Courtney Love
Ralph Nader
Ben Harper
Noam Chomsky
Harold Ford, Jr.
John Sellers
Christopher Shays
Bill Maher
Melissa Etheridge
Antonia Novello
Rudolph Giuliani
Ralph E. Reed, Jr.
Cheri Honkala
Pat Robertson
Patricia Ireland
Newt Gingrich
Jim Reese
Barney Frank
Tim Hutchinson
Jeff Johnston
Ed Robertson
Willie Nelson
Arlo Guthrie
Julia Butterfly Hill
Bonnie Raitt
Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman
Ben Cohen
Gary Johnson
Scott Weiland
Adora Obi Nweze
Robert Muhammad
Steve Earle
Greg Gladden
Bianca Jagger
John Kerry
Campbell Brown
Eddie Vedder
Mark Fritz
Rabbi Goldstein
Rosalyn Brodsky
Reed Anthony
William Baldwin
Robert Downey Jr.
Al Gore
Charlton Heston
Jesse Jackson Jr.