In Two Square Miles, what's maddening and what's heartening about America are both encapsulated in the life of one small town

The film, directed by Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby, is the story of two battles against long odds: a lesbian performance artist and community activist campaigns for Mayor, while citizens fight the world's largest cement company from steamrolling the town with a massive, coal-burning plant.

We often talk about the evils of multinational corporations, the downside of globalization, the corruption of politics by big business, the horrors of campaign finance, the depravations of lobbyists, the co-optation of our media, the corporate influence on our universities, the homegenization of our culture, the loss of local control of our own communities' destinies.

But how does this all play out in practice, on the streets, in the day-to-day life of an average citizen?

What actually happens when a vast, wealthy, and powerful global company descends upon a small town, and begins to throw its weight around? Can you fight City Hall? Do the citizens ever stand a chance against the company's public relations specialists, the legal firepower, the experts-for-hire, the newspapers-for-hire, the TV ad campaigns, the mass mailings, the hush money spread around community and cultural groups, the pillars of the community who don't want to rock the boat, the Chamber of Commerce that's eager to jump on the bandwagon, the fearfulness of individuals afraid to get involved--and the myriad other factors which combine into the single, defeatist, emasculating phrase which citizens always hear in these situations: "It's a done deal."

In the small, upstate New York city of Hudson, set in a rural Republican county, the answer to the question -- do the people stand a chance? -- was Yes. There is no such thing as a done deal, a few people said, and we started to figure out a way to win.

I've been touring with this movie in a lot of communities in the Northeast, from Asbury Park, NJ to Portsmouth, NH, and the reaction is almost always the same -- especially before the recent elections: It's just so good to see that people really can still make a difference, when they force the system to work as intended.

So please tune in to PBS (most airdates are Tuesday night, but in some markets there are multiple broadcasts. There is also a 93-minute "director's cut" available on DVD, which I find to present a much more nuanced and rounded picture of the diverse residents of Hudson than the 53-minute PBS version, but both are worth a look.

Thanks for reading.