True/False Films

Please Vote For Me

In person: editor Jean Tsien.

"I want to be a manager," one candidate tells the electorate, "not a dictator." Our 7-year-old silver-tongued candidate is out to woo his third-grade classmates in a hard-fought election. The position? Class monitor. The place? Evergreen Elementary School in Wuhan, China. Weijun Chen's hilarious film explores China's democratic reforms, a growing middle class and Westernized culture. Most of all, however, it celebrates kids being kids trying to be grown-up. They threaten, cajole, bribe and, even under tremendous pressure from their parents, manage to have fun. Though the battle's hard fought ("You beat your friends like a fascist," one candidate says to another during a debate), Chen keeps the tone light. Please Vote offers a look at democracy and childhood unfolding in one surprising and wondrous test tube. Plays with Time Piece (dir. Kat Mansoor, 2007, 10 min.) — Another era lives on in this magical, timeless portrait of Swiss watchmakers. (JS)