When a Cuban boy's rescue at sea ignites a bitter political revolt in Miami, America is plunged into recount chaos that ends with the presidency decided by just 537 votes.
“Brilliant HBO documentary puts the bizarre 2000 Bush-Gore election in the context of a city split by the Elian Gonzalez case… A non-fiction heist movie and a character study of some fascinating figures.”
“A rollicking, nostalgia-laden romp through the Florida 2000 debacle.”
“Director Billy Corben knows Florida well, and he niftily sets up the key players in this film.”
“Tightly reported and edited 537 Votes argues that the infamous Bush/Gore recount fiasco was actually the culmination of years of frothing anti-Castro sentiment on the part of Miami's Cuban community – or at least an extremely vocal portion of that community with inordinate access to talk radio and the corridors of political power”
“Billy Corben, along with his producing partner Alfred Spellman, have documented 'Florida f*ckery' throughout 13 documentaries, all of which to varying degrees posit that South Florida is both a metaphor and a cautionary tale for America at large. Along the way they've essentially become the Mark Twains of insane Floridiana.”
“The strength of Corben-Spellman films is their ability to mine all the ridiculousness that make Florida stories so irresistible for the rest of us, while also making the case that we should be paying attention to them as more than mere diversion. Florida at large, and Miami specifically, is so often the Ghost of America Future, rasping cryptic warnings about cronyism and demagoguery through garish fake tan and tacky dye job in a WWE-style spectacle.”