Review of Gerrymandering (2010) by Walter M — 05 Apr 2014

"Gerrymandering" is an uneven documentary look into the eponymous practice of unfairly redistricting in order to favor one political party over another, that is exacerbated by one party simply giving up and not running any candidates in that district anymore. Fortunately, there is an innovative way to combat this. In 2010, Californians get to vote on Prop 11 which proposes taking redistricting out of the politicians' hands and putting it in the hands of ordinary citizens. As then Governor Schwarzenegger eloquently put it, it takes the conflict of interest out of the whole equation.(Yeah, I was shocked, too.).

The rest of the documentary does not work nearly as well, even though showing the shape of a representative's district when he is being interviewed is a very nice tough. Outside of wisely having Lani Guinier testify, most of the evidence the documentary employs is on the anecdotal side when instead it should have used a clear timeline in showing how gerrymandering has been used to disenfranchise minorities over the years.(The bit about Martha's Vineyard threatening to secede from Massachusetts is hilarious, if untintentionally so.) And like most movies, "Gerrymandering" could have definitely used more armadillo racing.