BuzzFlash Reviews

December 29, 2005

See How They Run (DVD, 2002)
Director: Emily Morse

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This improbable political documentary is just plain fun!

It covers the 1999 San Francisco Mayoral Race (no Republicans need apply) when the flamboyant -- but big-money wheeler dealer -- Willie Brown was fighting for re-election against the improbable insurgency candidacy of one Tom Ammiano -- who launched a write in campaign just two weeks before the primary.

Ammiano was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, so he was not new to politics, but it was unprecedented to force a sitting mayor into a run-off campaign with a last minute write-in effort, but Ammiano did just that.

In this fast-paced, hip documentary, you can relax because you are among friends. In what other city in America could a mainstream black who supports just about every progressive policy under the sun be supported by the San Francisco Republican Party, including the Former Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz?

Willie Brown was always a big money Democrat, ever since he practically ran the state legislature in California, where nothing got through if Brown didn't green light it -- and there's a lot of special interest money in America's largest state. But you got to love the guy. He could charm the skin off of a snake -- and we mean that as a compliment. The guy oozes confidence and one liners.

Then you got Tom Ammiano, who at one point in the documentary jokes that he might wear a dress to his inauguration. In San Francisco, it's nothing to be a gay candidate for mayor. Although at one point, a voter seriously straddles her indecision about who to vote for by honestly declaring that she wishes Brown and Ammiano could have a co-mayorship: Brown would be the king and Ammiano would be the queen. Only in San Francisco can you get away with a comment like that and not be accused of being politically incorrect.

The real story has little to do with Ammiano's gender preference or Brown's taste in hats; it has to do with the big money gentrification and development of San Francisco (supported by Brown) vs. the emphasis on preserving lower income housing and social services (supported by Ammiano). Brown happens to be black and Ammiano happens to be gay, but there are actually issues at stake in this 1999 election. Imagine that!

We breathed a sigh of relief that the movie moved so fast that you never developed angst over the outcome. It was refreshing. After dealing with Bush for five years, it was like watching an election that took place on another planet; one you'd like to live on.

The outcome is not a surprise. After all, Willie Brown served as Mayor of San Francisco until 2004. Brown had the "A" team of Democratic elected officials behind him including Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi. Ammiano had the grassroots activists and people being squeezed out by the developers.

It was one heck of an election. Two guys who don't need aides to tell them what to think. Your heart's with Ammiano and his band of populists, but Willie is one hard guy to dislike, even if he went to bed with the GOP. He'd make the perfect stranger on a plane, with a thousand stories to tell and making you feel special all along the way as you shared a bottle of Scotch.

Watch "See How They Run" and be among friends for a change.

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