getting through to the president

[emmie]

the Black Maria Film Festival just travelled through Savannah. it's an independent festival with mostly artsy short films. but there was a documentary called, Getting Through to the President. the filmmakers took over a 4 sided payphone in washington square, taped the number to the white house comment line in huge numbers on the outside, and then offered to pay for anyone who would leave a comment for the president. what surprised me was that it wasn't an answering service, but apparently real live people answer the white house comment line to take down your comments. it was both funny and depressing how they responded to the questions and comments that people left. overall, it was enlightening and entertaining. here is the site for the the film: http://documentarycampaign.org/president.html and the white house comment line number, if anyone is interested: 202-456-1111

[special_k]

Oh, they're definitely live operators. I used to ring rather frequently during the golden days of the Clinton administration.