Chisholm 72: Unbought
and Unbossed
Director:
Shola Lynch
Year: 2004
Rating: 6.5
To put Shirley Chisholm into a modern perspective
- she was the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of her time. The first black woman
elected to Congress in 1968 and the first woman to run for the Presidential
nomination in 1972. She was brash, articulate, courageous and an outspoken
proponent for progressive ideas in civil rights, women rights, human rights
and economic inequality. She was a big deal and because of her status as
black and female she received a lot of publicity. And at the same time because
she was black and female she had no real power. But she was grand. And from
Brooklyn.
This documentary focuses on her 1972 run for the democratic nomination -
as unrealistic as could be but she wanted her voice heard - but in the end
she was basically shut out of the process. What she could have done with
Twitter! In the end of course George McGovern (who I canvassed for) won and
got crushed by Nixon. Strange times they were with war and rampant corruption
in the White House - oh wait - not so very different than now. Chisholm died
a year after this film was made.