No Umbrella: Election Day in the City

Laura Paglin's No Umbrella spends Election Day 2004 at a polling station on the east side of Cleveland, OH. Crowded and chaotic at 9:30 in the morning, the station has only three booths, and voters—mostly African American and Democrat—are forced to wait hours in a line that extends to the parking lot. When 80-year-old Fannie Lewis, a city councilwoman, arrives an hour later, she whips out her cell phone and begins haggling for more booths and poll workers. With the fire and grit of a righteously angry grandma, Lewis surmounts numerous barriers, including impotent officials and dead end phone trees, all the while encouraging people to stay in line and vote. “It's like we prayed for rain, and didn't bring no umbrella,” Lewis comments (i.e., the local government was completely unprepared for voter turnout). Television crews and journalists come and go—along with politicians, including the mayor of Cleveland—but nothing improves until 4:30 p.m., when the extra voting booths become functional. Unfortunately, the story ends here. Since No Umbrella was shot in cinéma vérité style, little reference is made to what's happening beyond this single precinct (of course, substantial evidence now exists of systemic interference in the democratic process in Ohio, but minus this context, Lewis appears to be a lone warrior fighting an inept, faceless bureaucracy). Likely to have a short shelf life, this is an optional purchase, at best. [Note: No Umbrella is also being sold to individuals for home use for $20 at www.noumbrella.org.] Aud: H, C, P. (J. Wadland)