When faced with all the issues of the upcoming election that are not being discussed, Producer Ann Lewis(right) asked MAP for a resolution to focus on the election. MAP is an alliance of 54 Peace and justice organizations and has been in existence since 1995. They asked Ms. Lewis to form a committee to decide what to do. She found that there were several “get-out-the-vote” campaigns, and a lot of voter registration campaigns. But once a voter is registered, how can they find out about issues and make an informed choice? Ann feels the popular news media isn’t focusing on the issues that people really care about. So the idea for a presentation was born.

In stepped St. Joan of Arc parishioner, Jeff Nohner(right with wife Rita). An amateur filmmaker, he said he would do the video for free. (He also wanted to try out his new DVD authoring software!) The result of 40 hours of person-on-the-street interviews and many more hours of editing is a thirty-minute video and DVD with special interview features, and a 15-minute discussion video. Jeff echoed Ann’s sentiments: “What is important about the election may not be what they’re hearing about. They’re not necessarily hearing about all the important issues.”

The video focuses on seven categories; Economics and Trade Policy, Education, Environment, Foreign Relations/Defense/Intelligence, Health Care and Insurance, Legal/Judiciary/Constitutional, Social/Political Topics. Two questions were posed to random people, many of whom were St. Joan of Arc parishioners; “Why is this election especially important to you?” and “What are the issues that are most important to you in this election?” More than 20 authorities were interviewed to address these topics in each segment, including Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer, FBI agent Colleen Rowley, Professor Emeritus of Geography, University of Minnesota Joe Schwartzberg, and retired congressman Arlen Erhdal; Afterwards Ann Lewis, “tested” the talking points created specifically for the presentation by leading a discussion with the audience.

Both Jeff and Ann were applauded by the group for their efforts, and more than 100 videos were sold at the event. They hope for wide distribution to groups who are interested in having discussions about the issues in this heated election year.