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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Pine Lake: Women-run town in Georgia is struggling to remain true to its progressive values

A documentary on CBS All Access asks: Would we be better off if women ran the country, wrote the laws and enforced them? It’s a question that gets asked a lot, especially on the progressive left, with “yes” being the implicit answer.

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By Madeleine Brand • Jan 5, 2021 • 14m Listen

A documentary on CBS All Access asks: Would we be better off if women ran the country, wrote the laws and enforced them? It’s a question that gets asked a lot, especially on the progressive left, with “yes” being the implicit answer.

Filmmaker Elisa Gambino went on a quest to find a city run entirely by women, to see if the people who lived there actually were better off.

She found one just outside Atlanta — the city of Pine Lake. Population: around 750. The mayor, the city council, the police chief, the municipal judge are all women. Gambino followed them for more than a year for her new film “Welcome to Pine Lake.”

Spoiler: She did not find an idyllic society. In fact, she found that this progressive town was participating in an unfair and ultimately racist criminal justice system.

“This progressive leadership had inherited some things that had been long-standing in Pine Lake, but were also not discussing them or addressing them,” says Gambino.

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Madeleine Brand

    Host, 'Press Play'

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    Sarah Sweeney

    Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

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    Angie Perrin

    Producer, Press Play

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    Michell Eloy

    Line Editor, Press Play

  • KCRW placeholder

    Elisa Gambino

    writer and director, “Welcome to Pine Lake”

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    Wendy Eley Jackson

    executive producer, “Welcome to Pine Lake”

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Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand