Film screening of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and Q & A with producer and investigative journalist Greg Palast

“The Best Money Democracy Can Buy” film poster

On Tues., Oct. 11, from 5:00-8:00pm, over two hundred students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered in CBA 140 to view the new film, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” and engage in a post-screening discussion of the film with producer and investigative journalist Greg Palast. It was a high-energy event, with engaged interchange and discussion. After the event formally concluded, roughly thirty audience members spoke with Mr. Palast for nearly an hour outside the venue.

With the Nov. 8 election fast approaching, the film’s central topics could not be more important: the intertwinement of wealthy donors and our elected officials and candidates, and the purposeful suppression of voting rights. Specifically, Palast demonstrates through careful research that so-called “anti-voter-fraud” programs are poised to deny hundreds of thousands of young, black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters the right to vote in the upcoming presidential election. These findings extend Palast’s earlier work uncovering a massive voter role purge in Florida in 2000 that prevented tens of thousands of African-Americans from voting in that extremely close presidential election.

In the midst of perhaps the most racially charged presidential campaign in decades, as well as highly contentious debates over race, racism, economic inequality, and voting rights, this film and speaker provided invaluable information, insight, and inspiration.

Q & A with investigative journalist Greg Palast

The event was co-sponsored by the Departments/Programs/Faculty of AAAS, AFRS, AIS, CHLS, IST, JOUR, POSC, and SOC; and the Chicana/o Latina/o Studies Student Association. It was supported with grants from the College of Liberal Arts Scholarly Intersections Program; the Office of Multicultural Affairs; and the departments/programs of AAAS, CHLS, IST, and POSC.

Palast Panel