The Shame of a City

An excellent documentary about racism, unions and intimidation. Focused on the race between Sam Katz and John Street and the ugliness that went on during the campaign. The footage is excellent starting with a famous Street outburst as a councilman and him physically assaulting a reporter, to when the indictments are handed out and everyone goes to jail except Street. The Democrat political machine showed their strength and all the players were spinning together. It is really hard to believe this happened recently. This smacks of Boss Tweed and illustrates everything that is wrong with this once great city. Kudo's to Tigre Hill an African American with a lot of guts. The Irish Union guys like Dougherty and Brady look especially loathsome. It is a fascinating yet sad tale, an important film for anyone interested in big city politics.

This full length documentary is the first major work of the director and producer Tigre Hill. Although he was born in Pittsburgh, Hill grew up in Philadelphia, and this film reflects his interest in particularly the politics of the city, politics that is often dirty and occasionally violent, albeit with a small v. The mayoral race covered herein was between the black Democrat John Street - who won , and the white Republican Sam Katz.

In the run-up to the election, a bug was found in the Democrats' office, and even for those who were not particularly conspiratorially minded it would have required a giant leap of faith to believe this had nothing to do with the race. A cameo appearance by Bill Clinton put the seal on that.

This is a creditable film but it has a very parochial appeal, namely for those with an interest in its purely local politics and those with an intense interest in American national politics.