A fierce woman standing in her own conviction who's words are anecdotal as we enter a new millennium of social change from the bottom up. A change agent who plays her hand well in an all or nothing , no compromise battle to the bitter end. Paving the way for policy makers , future radicals, libertarians and community- action oriented people alike. A splendid expose' of passion fit for the most humane of our society. She knows no bounds and never shows fear to her adversaries. Her intellect supersedes those who doubted her from the very beginning. A journey that will captivate the most conservative in us all. An excellent film of timeless proportions.

A documentary film about one of the endless and countless failed attempts at attaining the presidency wouldn't normally catch my attention. But I bought this one on a whim a couple years back and finally decided to watch it today. It turns out that Shirley Chisholm wasn't your typical politician out there vying for control of the country. I don't mean that in the sense that she was both black and female (though it certainly factored significantly in 1972), but in a purely ideological respect. She didn't have much interest in the standard nonsense, the buying and trading of votes, and totally rejected the notion that you should support anyone but who you believed in. In her world, there were no compromises for the greater good, there was just the good and that's that. It's that purity of approach which has made it impossible for anyone with a similarly deep conviction and honesty to ever be elected to the highest American office.From a documentary film perspective, it's the content and not the direction that makes "Chisholm '72" stand out. The approach is clean and well-researched, and everyone of importance gets their chance to speak. That doesn't necessarily give it enough strength to stand out to anyone not personally interested in the subject matter, but it was enough to draw a casual observer like myself. This film really captures Shirley Chisholm in her all her glory as the total antithesis of modern politics.

Shirley Chisholm did not take the easy road. The film doesn't really go into her motivations, so we don't now why she took on the double whammy of being not just black, but female at a time the country, even the nascent feminists, were trying to wrap their heads around what it meant to have equality of the sexes.We don't see that she had much of an organization, but the congresswoman from Bed-Sty had some aides and she traveled. Surely she needed financing to pay for the plane tickets, the hotel rooms an the salary, but it is not explained to us how she got it. The footage, both archived and contemporary, shows her with an immense amount of dignity and calm. Her uninhibited and justified comments after she is double-crossed by an old friend shows us another side. Her reflections during an interview for the film inform us that she didn't want to be remembered as the first black woman to do what she did, but rather someone who tried to make a difference. There wasn't a long line after her doing what she did. The laudatory film shows that there wasn't much future in it, even 32 years later in 2004 when Carol Mosley Braun tried it.

CHISHOLM '72: UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED is an excellent documentary about a fearless lady and her bold campaign for the nation's top political office. Rather than wait for the "right time," Chisholm stepped into the presidential race in 1972 as not only the first black person, but also the first woman to mount a serious presidential campaign. She also did it on her own terms.While she failed to win the nomination (that went to Sen. George McGovern, who eventually lost to Richard Nixon), she did incredibly well given the substantial obstacles that she faced. If one were to compare her bid to Carol Moseley-Braun's 2004 bid for the same job, it is all the more impressive. So much so in fact, that you wonder if Moseley-Braun even bothered to study her campaign. If she did, one would think that she would have fared much better.Unlike Moseley-Braun, Chisholm did not try to downplay the fact that she was a woman or that she was black. To her it was a badge of honor. If anything, Chisholm's campaign had tremendous symbolic value. It served as a test of the "American Dream." The question that the campaign seemed to ask was not so much could a black woman win, but would she be taken seriously as a candidate. The viewer can make that determination after watching this film.The documentary combines historical and contemporary footage to effectively give the viewer a sense of the political environment that Chisholm found herself in. For those unfamiliar with the campaign, it may bring a few surprises. The director wisely allows the participants to speak for themselves. This includes interviews with former Congressman Ron Dellums, author Octavia Butler and Chisholm herself.Overall, CHISHOLM '72: UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED is a powerful documentary. Chisholm's outspoken nature is a refreshing alternative to the sanitized and overly cautious political candidates that dominate the political landscape today. Irrespective of your political affiliation, this provocative film will stay with you long after you've left the theatre.