The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago has canceled two screenings of Senator Obama Goes to Africa, a documentary by Bob Hercules & Keith Walker about the presidential candidate’s “emotional homecoming to Kisumu, Kenya - his father’s former home.” Even though the film is already available on DVD, with interest in the Illinois senator higher than ever (despite or because of his marginal loss to Hillary Clinton last night, “Obama” is today’s Top 3 search term on Technorati, and “Barack Obama” is #2 on Yahoo), you can be sure the Film Center wasn’t going to have trouble selling tickets. So what’s the problem?

According to this Chicagoist story, as a non-profit the Film Center couldn’t risk “creat[ing] a perceived aura of support for any political candidate.” More than that, screening a pro-Obama film during an election could actually “jeopardize [the center's] not for profit status.”

Would the better solution be to run films representing each of the candidates? I mean, sure, maybe you wait until later in the season, when the race is down to just a couple of frontrunners in each party. But it shouldn’t be hard finding material.

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