Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in The Americas

Filmmakers Michael and Silvia Leindecker Fox travel the Americas in search of an answer to the question "What is Democracy?" in this documentary exploring what happens when the power is taken away from the ruling elite, and put back into the hands of regular citizens. Upon installing participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre back in 1989, the Brazilian Worker's Party successfully altered the concept of local government by allowing residents a direct say in the allocation of city funds. A decade later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to grant direct participation to the people of his country. As a result, he was quickly swept to power, and thousands of self-organized communal counsels were established. Conversations with such notable public figures as Eduardo Galeano, Emir Sader, and Ward Churchill, as well as co-op and community members, elected officials, activists, and academics from Canada to Columbia ponder the core concept of democracy, and what it means to live in a land that is truly governed by the people, for the people.