Left Out: Beyond the Two-Party Horse Race, a film that will be featured during November’s Strasburg Film Festival, is a documentary that sheds light on the ways third-party candidates gain support while marginalized by the news media. It is a critique of the mainstream news media’s lack of coverage regarding candidates outside the two-party system. Ultimately, it unveils the undemocratic nature of a voting system, which is designed to exclude dissenting voices.
The film follows best-selling author, Luis J. Rodriguez, and documents four months of his campaign trail in the 2014 primary election for Governor of California as a Green Party candidate. The documentary expands beyond the election, with interviews from experts such as Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and Ralph Nader. The story follows the filmmaker on a journey discovering American democracy.
Director Story
Jesse Bertel is an award-winning Media Artist, Filmmaker, Comedian, Journalist, and Musician. He has an A.S. in Video Production from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He also has a B.A. of Screenwriting in Cinema and Television Arts and an M.A. of Documentary Film in Mass Communication/Journalism, both from California State University, Northridge.
He won his first film award for his comedic reinterpretation of Charlie Chaplin’s filmmaking and acting in the 1998 film, Damsel in Distress. He is the recipient of the Frank Little Award for Self-Sacrifice and Social Change, from the 2016 Covellite International Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature, from the 2018 Open Everything Film Festival – Privacy and Security, for his groundbreaking documentary film, Left Out: Beyond the Two-Party Horse Race. Additionally, he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Thesis/Project Award in 2015 for his insightful interviews with Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman and Luis J. Rodriguez.
He is also the Host of The Real/Fake News, an online news satire program, which challenges the boundaries between real news and fake news.
His newest film, Bernie and Me, explores the campaign of Bernie Sanders with a focus on the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia through the eyes of himself as a filmmaker and single parent.
You can purchase passes now at Strasburgfilm.com or you can wait till the schedule is released, which will be in early September and then you can determine if you’d want to enjoy the best of over 5,500 submitted films. Prices will range:
– $30 for the full three days
– $10 dollars for one day
– $4 for one session
It’s best that you follow us on one of our social media channels so you don’t miss as we feature a new film each day leading up to the festival, which is November 9-11.
