About a year ago, after locals heard that St. Paul would be the site of the Republican National Convention, a handful of liberal activists decided they would do something to welcome the show.
The result? True Blue Minnesota and their 22 by 30 foot jumbo screen, held two stories aloft, playing video programming designed from a decidedly anti-Bush perspective. The screen, trucked in for the convention from Massachusetts with two technicians for a cost of about $25,000, is parked just West of the Xcel Center in a park that’s little more than an oversized traffic triangle.
On Monday afternoon at about 5 o’clock, as helicopters circled and sirens blared downtown, the True Blue screen was in the midst of “Bush’s War,” the magisterial compilation of all of eight years of Frontline documentaries on the administration’s Iraq, Afghanistan, and interrogation policies.
“Given all the riot gear, we thought we’d just put on a movie and let everyone chill out,” said Becca Hein, a True Blue organizer who works for a St. Paul historic preservation non-profit.
“This is the culmination of all the work they did on the Bush administration. And everything we’re doing comes from them, because they just did the best work,” says Martha Ballou, who leads the group. “Frontline has been just fantastic these last few years.”
The group solicited financial support from individuals, a local Steelworkers union, and the progressive Alliance for a Better Minnesota, and endured a complex permitting process to get their spot. Although the State House lies two highway overpasses away, at the last minute, they were told that their very temporary installation fell under the jurisdiction of the state’s Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board. The board denied the application in a tie vote broken by the Republican Lieutenant Governor, and the screen was only allowed up after the legal stay of a local judge.
“It was amazing to watch justice happen in front of your eyes,” exulted Ballou, a Minneapolis family-lawyer. “The First Amendment!”
Given the street closures, the area is something of a funnel. Many pedestrians, protesters, and police found themselves passing under the jumbotron, some taking time to watch and listen. The group will mostly screen fare less journalistic than Frontline— Robert Greenwald’s documentaries, video art, and day-after broadcasts of “Wake Up World” a satire revue being staged locally during the convention by Twin Cities native and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead.
Still, it’s not everyday that you get a chance to watch Frontline like it’s a hockey-rink replay.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.