Atlantic City Weekly

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Filmmaker Jeff Reichert, who grew up in Northfield, will be sweating a little bit this Friday, Oct. 15. Not because he is on his way home to bring his documentary, Gerrymandering, to the Atlantic City Cinefest film festival this weekend, Sunday, Oct. 17, 6pm, but because his film will be opening in several major cities including New York and Los Angeles on Friday. Good reviews from the big city critics are crucial for a documentary.

Gerrymandering is the process of re-drawing the districts for state and federal legislatures. It has often been used as a political tool, to improve political election bids by redesigning the districts in their favor.

In his film, Reichert focuses on two major battles. The first is Prop 11 in California in 2008,which was designed to remove politicians from the process and allow re-districting to be done by an independent panel. The other is a famous case in Texas. Tom Delay had coordinated a re-drawing of the lines to pick up extra Republican seats in the Texas legislature.

Jeff Reichert

So far Reichert, a former senior vice president at Magnolia Pictures, and co-founder of the film journal Reverse Shot, has been taking his film around the country on the film festival circuit, including at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York last April.

Growing up in a home with movie fanatic parents, Marcia and Lou Reichert, who ran the Little Art Theater in Bargaintown for many years, Reichert had a natural love of movies. In addition his aunt, Julia Reichert (Union Maids), is a documentary filmmaker who has multiple Oscar nominations. Jeff Reichert did camera work on her most recent Oscar nominated film, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.

In a conversation with Atlantic City Weekly, Reichert talked about his film and about his return home.

When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?

I always had it in my mind to try and make a film or two, but I really caught the bug in high school (Mainland Regional). A friend and I used to turn in historical videos rather than papers for final projects. We reenacted the assassin of Abraham Lincoln and McKinley’s assassination. I made films in college and worked in film distribution [at Magnolia Pictures].

What was it about the subject that made you want to make a film about gerrymandering?

I first heard about it in 2003 where Tom Delay tried to redistrict the state of Texas, and to try and stop him Texas Democratic legislators fled the state on a bus in the middle of the night to close down the government. It was really wild. Willie Nelson was sending them booze. That by itself could have been the subject of the film, but as I did more research, I wanted to look at this flaw in our government that has been hanging around for 200 years. The powers that be don’t want to change it because it helps them. Being able to draw yourself a district is a very powerful thing.

What do you want audiences to take away from this film?

I want them to feel energized and come out of the film asking, ‘what district do I live in?’ and ‘who is in my district?’ and who is not and ‘why is my next door neighbor not in my district?’ It should raise questions and engage people in the discussion.

So how do you feel about coming home as the conquering filmmaker?

Well, I haven’t conquered anything yet. Depending on how the reviews are in New York and LA are [this week] I might be slinking away with my tail between my legs. I was very flattered when the festival asked me to bring my film here. This is where I grew up and it’s really important to try and get films that wouldn’t necessarily go to places like Atlantic City, into those areas, and give people a chance to see them.