Sunday Screening – Nick Fraser recommends Please Vote for Me

What do we really think of democracy? We’re all supposed to be citizens – but what does it mean to be a citizen? Please Vote For Me answers these questions briskly and hilariously, through the medium of an election staged in a Chinese classroom in which 9 year olds strive to turn themselves into politicians to get elected to the post of Class Monitor.  – Nick Fraser

Please Vote for Me is director Weijun Chen’s experiment in introducing democracy to the ordinary Chinese citizen. In Wuhan, a city in central China about the size of London, a group of Grade 3 children are running for the newly created position of Class Monitor. Urged by parents and teachers alike, the candidates in the school become increasingly competitive as the election wears on.

Through this class election Weijun Chen explores whether democratic elections outside the Communist Party would be possible in China. Please Vote for Me is a thoughtful exploraton of how democracy works and whether it is a value inherent in human nature.

2007
Directed by Weijun Chen
58 mins

Recommends is a new screening strand in which friends of Frontline are asked to select one of their favourite documentaries.