If you want to understand what’s happening in the Texas and California gerrymandering wars, you can watch cable news. Or you can turn to Jeff Reichert’s documentary Gerrymandering . A veteran indie film director and distribution executive, Reichert’s 2010 movie tackles the fraught question of legislators contortedly redrawing district lines to gain political advantage.

The film has just been made available for viewing on Vimeo . Watching it now feels a little like unearthing a Nostradamus quatrain just as Napoleon is coming to power. The film in part tracks the 2003 efforts by Texas Republicans to redistrict their state to their partisan benefit, prompting Democrats to flee to avoid a vote — in other words, a perfect echo of today’s headlines. As Texas Republicans move to take five s

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