Film
Street Fight
A scrappy, close-quarters documentary about the 2002 Newark mayoral race, where councilman Cory Booker challenged twenty-year incumbent Sharpe James. Shot verite-style with the crew repeatedly harassed and blocked from filming, it becomes as much about the machinery of intimidation as the election itself. Tense, funny in a bleak way, and a masterclass in how local power actually works.
If you liked this
The War Room1993
The gold standard of behind-the-curtain campaign documentaries, following Clinton's 1992 war room. It has the same fly-on-the-wall intimacy and shows how strategy and personality collide under pressure.
But National scale and a winning campaign make it a very different emotional temperature than Street Fight's grinding local fight.
Knock Down the House2019
Follows four insurgent candidates, including AOC, taking on entrenched party machines. Same David-versus-Goliath structure and the same thrill of watching an outsider refuse to play by the old rules.
But More polished and hopeful in tone; it lacks the raw, adversarial camera you get in Street Fight.
Weiner2016
Astonishing access to a politician self-destructing in real time, with the same uncomfortable closeness to a subject who can't control the narrative around him.
But It's about personal scandal rather than institutional power, and the tone tips toward tragicomedy rather than political warfare.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Mayor2020no page yet
Same genre — an embattled mayor trying to actually run a city — but the obstacle isn't a rival candidate, it's an occupying power, which recasts the whole idea of what 'local politics' can mean.
A verite documentary following Musa Hadid, the real mayor of Ramallah, trying to pave roads and plan Christmas events while his city sits under occupation. Absurd, funny, and quietly devastating.
But The stakes are existential rather than electoral, and its dry, deadpan humor is a very different register from Booker versus James.
More like this (8)
Boys State2020
Teenagers building a mock government reveal, in miniature, exactly the tactics, alliances and dirty tricks grown politicians use. Genuinely unsettling in how accurately it predicts adult behavior.
But The stakes are simulated, so it never carries the real-world weight of an actual election with real consequences.
Get Me Roger Stone2017
A history of dirty campaign tactics through one of their most gleeful practitioners. Useful context for understanding the kind of playbook Sharpe James's camp seems to be running.
But Stone is a showman and the film indulges him; it's slicker and more cynical than Street Fight's grounded, local focus.
All the Way2016
Bryan Cranston as LBJ, twisting arms and calling in favors to pass the Civil Rights Act. Same fascination with power exercised through threats, deals and sheer force of will.
But It's a scripted drama, not documentary, and operates at a much higher altitude than a city council race.
Baltimore Rising2017no page yet
Sonja Sohn's documentary about Baltimore after Freddie Gray's death shows a city's political establishment under real strain, with the same sense of institutions failing in real time.
But Heavier and more overtly about racial violence and unrest than Street Fight's more contained electoral drama.
Slay the Dragon2019no page yet
A clear-eyed look at gerrymandering as the quiet machinery that decides elections before voters even show up. Good companion piece on how entrenched power protects itself.
But More wonky and structural, with less of the personal, in-your-face confrontation that makes Street Fight so gripping.
Whose Streets?2017no page yet
Grassroots footage from Ferguson after Michael Brown's death, made by the community itself. Shares Street Fight's commitment to documenting power on the ground rather than from a studio.
But It's about protest and policing rather than an election, and the anger here is far rawer and less contained.
Boss2011
Same subject, the machinery of city hall and what a mayor will do to keep power, but fictionalized into pulpy prestige drama, showing how naturally this true story slides into melodrama.
Kelsey Grammer plays a ruthless, ailing Chicago mayor clawing to keep control of his city in this pulpy Starz drama. All the backroom deals and betrayals of Street Fight, turned up to eleven.
But It's fiction, and deliberately soapy and violent — a very different animal from a grounded, real-world documentary.
Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed2004no page yet
An earlier chapter in the same lineage — a Black candidate fighting an entrenched political machine — showing the fight in Street Fight has deep roots, and different stakes when the office is the presidency, not city hall.
A documentary about Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential run, the first serious campaign by a Black woman for the office, made with the same mix of archival footage and hard-won access.
But It's a national campaign from three decades earlier, with less of the street-level menace and confrontation that defines Street Fight.
People
Cast
Cory BookerSelf
Sharpe JamesSelf
Spike LeeSelf
Al SharptonSelf
Cornel WestSelf
Chris ChristieSelf
Bill BradleySelf
Directing
- Marshall CurryDirector
Writing
- Marshall CurryWriter
Production
- Liz GarbusExecutive Producer
- Marshall CurryProducer