Turn on the tube this week for two “must see” movies

By Maria Saporta

For those of you who don’t mind watching movies on TV, two films that shouldn’t be missed will air early this week.

The first is: “The People v. Leo Frank,” which will air at 9 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2 on PBS — Georgia Public Broadcasting — which is also Channel 8.

And the second movie is: “By the People, the Election of Barack Obama.” Fittingly, it will air on Election night — Tuesday, Nov. 3 — from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on HBO. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the historic election.

I’ve had the good fortune to see both movies, and I can enthusiastically recommend both.

A preview of “The People v. Leo Frank” was shown at the Cobb Energy Center on April 30th of this year — just a few miles from where the famous lynching of Leo Frank took place.

The movie depicts one of the most controversial murder cases in American history — the killing of Mary Phagan, a child laborer who worked in an Atlanta pencil factory. Her supervisor was Leo Frank, a Jew, who was accused of her murder.

Click here to read what I wrote the night that I saw the movie.

“By the People: the Election of Barack Obama,” was previewed at the Carter Center Oct. 22 and introduced by the two filmmakers — Amy Rice and Alicia Sams. They spent nearly two years shadowing Obama and his campaign staff — providing incredible behind-the-scenes footage of the nation-changing campaign.

Mike Klein, my guest columnist for this week, wrote a wonderful review of the movie, and it is better than anything I could write. So here is a link to Mike Klein’s review.