Ex-Sex
Synopsis
Funded by white conservatives and unpopular within most of the New Orleans African-American community, Mayor Nagin was first elected with 86% of the white and 38% of the African-American vote. Many thought he would cruise to re-election; but then Katrina hit.
After the levee failures, New Orleans was thought to have lost its African-American majority, Nagin’s base abandoned him, and an unprecedented number of challengers emerged. The front-runner was Mitch Landrieu—son of a civil rights pioneer and the city’s last white mayor. With the displacement of so many citizens, Nagin faced the fight of his political life. But against all expectations, Nagin won re-election with 83% of the African-American vote and 21% of the white vote, a near reversal from 2002. This election constituted a post-Katrina civil rights protest, and Race tracks what happened during a pivotal moment for a city in crisis.
Race has just entered the film festival circuit and recently won the HBO-sponsored Best Documentary Award at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival.
