Last Party 2000

The documentary was shot over the last six months of the American presidential election of 2000. Philip Seymour Hoffman carries the camera. He goes to the conventions of both big parties but spends most of his time outside. What is outside is street protest and police action. Hoffman is openly at a distance from the money side of politics, and that stance is the film’s own. Among those he talks with are Barney Frank and Jesse Jackson. What Frank says is this: marches and demonstrations are mostly wasted effort. The film watches the campaign from the street rather than from the convention hall. Donovan Leitch and Rebecca Chaiklin’s American documentary of 2001 runs ninety minutes.