PAY 2 PLAY: Democracy's High Stakes

Pay 2 Play isn't your standard political film. It interweaves stories about Monopoly, underdog candidates, unpublicized scandals involving huge amounts of money and street art. If you've wondered how our political system has become beholden to the huge corporate donors and the very rich and controlled by it, then you should see this film. It explores the history of money in politics, how it relates to the game Monopoly, history of Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United to Hobby Lobby, and many of the various movements that people are involved in to try to regain balance in our country.

Pay 2 Play shows us hope in several solutions we can get involved in now to turn the tide for We The People! It will entertain and show you what is going on in our political system deep beneath the surface of your TV.

After watching Pay 2 Play, one of my greatest take-aways comes from the metaphor director John Ennis used to explain our corrupt political system - Monopoly. Although Monopoly was supposedly designed and sold to Parker Brothers by one man (who became incredibly wealthy for his efforts), the real story of the game is much different. It was popular for a long time among Quakers as a teaching game, designed to impart lessons about the dangers of real estate bubbles and - you guessed it - monopolies. The Landlord's Game, as it was originally called, was much like games of cards, chess, and checkers - publicly owned, not for private profit. Our favorite childhood game is, in fact, another corporate deception - a perfect method for explaining the rampant corruption in our nation's capitol.

Pay2Play is an impactful and energetic look at the influence of money in politics. Interviews with people "in the know" of politics (but not corrupted by being "in the system") such as Lawrence Lessig, Marianne Williamson, Thom Hartmann, Robert Reich, Noam Chomsky (& more) give insight into exactly how our current political system is an intentional insider game. When only candidates with big bank accounts (or big dollar backers) get into office and forward their own agendas, the results on the everyday American are nothing short of devastating. Pay2Play however is not a downer documentary; Ennis also provides us with examples of where people power has made a difference, and outlines viable steps and means where we can still turn it all around.

Pay 2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes opens with director John Wellington Ennis recalling Monopoly, the board-game most of us grew up playing, learning the rules to, and embracing as a cultural icon of sorts. He reflects on the rules and how we were trained at a young age to understand the interworkings of capitalism, commanding a large slice of the pie, weeding out potential competitors, and garnering the most cash that would send our opponents into foreclosure and bankruptcy. Looking back on my own childhood, I played that game with my mother and grandmother and never did I really see how sinister my intentions were whilst playing the game; I don't think my mother or grandmother did either, as frightening as that is.

The fact that we open on a note that shows how America has been socialized to see such a cutthroat practice as a byproduct of generational acceptance is eerie but nonetheless thought-provoking, and for the next eighty-nine minutes, Pay 2 Play delivers a great deal of the same kind of information. Ennis explores a plethora of different ideas, with one of his most profound and engaging subjects, investigative journalist John Nichols, setting the tone right by saying the American political system has become "bought and sold," transitioning from a "one person, one vote" concept to a "one dollar, one vote" concept. In a nutshell, we, as a country, have been adhering to the principles of Plutocracy or an Oligarchy rather than the cherished idea of democracy we've liked to believe we've forged for ourselves and our children.

Ennis shows us numerous examples of how this "bought and sold" system has shifted potentially revolutionary voices and moral candidates for Congress and American government to the background, while candidates who have accepted donations and campaign PACS have found themselves etched in the foreground of the discussion. We focus on people like Paul Hackett, an Iraq veteran who returned home to run for Congress, dismantling President George W. Bush's encouragement and persistent justifications for the Iraq War through the use of "chicken hawking" or blind patriotism. Unfortunately, despite generous media coverage and resonating ideas, Hackett failed to make a splash. Another soul was an Indian man named Subodh Chandra, a lawyer who decided to run on pro-people principles only to be ignored by his own Democratic Party, who backed an alternate candidate, saying somebody with a name like his would never get elected.

A similar case occurred with a man named Surya Yalamanchili, a Democratic candidate who ran as an Ohio representative, challenging incumbent Republican Jean Schmidt. Surya ran on arguably the most ethical platform I have yet to see, personally signing all of his endorsement letters and fan donations, refusing to accept PAC donations of any kind, and running on not only pro-people ideology but staying true to that with every move he made. Despite controversy in the primaries with an offensive, shortchanging remark made by his challenger, David Krikorian, Surya still found ways to sneak by and enter in the final election. In the end, however, he didn't even come close to winning and was left to reflect with considerable disappointment.

Following these examples, Ennis shows us things we've come to either accept but not know the true history of or provide us with background to understand our system more. He gives us a rundown on the history of Monopoly, how its original purpose and message was ironically stolen and sold to make monopolistic acquisitions and capitalistic principles more understood and accepted, before diving into one of the most controversial and widely vocalized topics in American politics - Citizens United and its effects on voting, the legislative process, and politics in general.

One major fascination of Ennis's many fascinations concerns New York street artists, who he profiles with respect to their privacy but also with a sense of general documentarian interest. Street artists are a particularly unique breed because their work, which is generally plastered all over the city, doesn't ask anything of its viewers. In fact, it provides them with something they didn't originally have - a thought, an idea, or a philosophy that may have gone unsung in their heads up until they saw a piece of artwork. Ennis profiles these individuals with a keen sense of optimism, as if the next revolution will be kickstarted by the works of these brave souls.

Pay 2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes, as suggested, is fairly scattershot for a documentary. It takes about a solid half hour for the documentary to find its footing, ostensibly throwing a great deal of subjects and political events into a pot, stirring, and hope they settle and form something rewarding. However, a method to Ennis's madness forms during the second and third acts, and following a powerful closing statement from Nichols, we realize that this is no longer a documentary in search of a thesis, but whose thesis is a call to insight action rather than passivity. Any political documentary that can make me shed my apathetic, cynical skin and make me think a bit more introspectively, and on a grander scale, deserves some solid praise, and Ennis does so in a way that originally seemed to be a voice in search of a proper outlet.

Directed by: John Wellington Ennis.

With the midterm elections coming up, this film could not be more timely or important. Pay 2 Play looks at the corruption that isn't happening the way we used to think - its out in open and its completely legal. Through campaign contributions, SuperPACs, and interest groups, money is pouring into our elections like never before. Pay 2 Play looks at the long road that got us here and the even longer road forward to get money out - but offers concrete ways we can work together to fight for a constitutional amendment that will fix our broken system and overturn the disastrous Supreme Court decisions that got us into this mess. Thanks to Pay 2 Play, this conversation can finally reach a broader audience that needs to hear this message.