Saturday, November 1

US ELECTION - Saturday, November 1 from ali alvarez on Vimeo.

Our first day here.... I'll let the pictures and a bit of film tell a bit of the story, but I was totally and completely overwhelmed - in a good way. People were lining up down the street for hours to get their vote in. One woman started to complain and another just piped up, "This isn't a line, this is history". You get the most incredible feeling of hope; poor, mainly black, people coming out to vote for the first time, feeling impowered and proud. There are people from everywhere here to help. We met to Brits on the plane going to North Carolina to help, we met people from New York that had come to Cleveland to help.

We met a homeless man named Robert who we spent an hour with, who was so articulate and trying so hard to get back on his feet. We got in a fight with another homeless man who had just given up and was pissed off at the system.

We met campaigners who used music to motivate people, and others who were a little more - uh - hardcore. We spent an hour with friend's parents, talking about the state of things.

I almost cried three times. I was on a buzz the entire day and there are two more to go...