Knock Down the House
Directed by: Rachel Lears
Starring: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearingen, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley
Documentary - 86 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 2 May 2019
Starring: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearingen, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley
Documentary - 86 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 2 May 2019
There is a sort of power that comes with having four million Twitter followers and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not get all those by winning an election she was not supposed to win. Fox News decided to make her a cause célèbre, and in doing so, created a lightning rod for some looking to place blame and some looking for a hero. They opted to define the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives and its intention to finally enforce the faded concept of checks and balances by a late twenty-something politically inexperienced upstart. Oops. Most likely unintentionally, Fox News gave Representative Ocasio-Cortez an enormous amount of power.
Rachel Lears’s documentary, Knock Down the House, examines power – not necessarily what it is, or how to wield it, but how you get it. Angry at the our country’s state of affairs since President Trump won the White House by losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, an historic number of women campaigned for a seat in Congress during the 2018 election cycle. Out of over 500 running, a record number ended up winning, including a young, political neophyte named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Rachel Lears’s documentary, Knock Down the House, examines power – not necessarily what it is, or how to wield it, but how you get it. Angry at the our country’s state of affairs since President Trump won the White House by losing the popular vote by 3 million votes, an historic number of women campaigned for a seat in Congress during the 2018 election cycle. Out of over 500 running, a record number ended up winning, including a young, political neophyte named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not represent the American Dream because she won, the Dream is alive because she was allowed to share her voice, plead her case, and offer her services to the district she grew up in and cherishes. If a Bronx bartender can run and win against an establishment incumbent who has not had a primary challenger in 14 years, then the long dormant grassroots path to power is enjoying a breath of fresh air. Political philosophers including the authors of America’s founding documents all the way back to the ancient Greek practitioners of the world’s first democratic experiment believed ordinary citizens should assume the mantle of governance – teachers, engineers, scientists, writers.
Lately, it seems only lawyers, partisan hacks, and expert fundraisers are the select few allowed to legislate. That is not good enough for Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearingen, the three other insurgent primary challengers Lears follows over the course of a contentious primary season. However, "AOC" severely overshadows her peers through the filmmaker's design and editing choices. We watch how each evolves into a more connected and passionate candidate as they canvas neighborhoods and encounter the everyman surprised someone would take on the machine. In St. Louis, Cori Bush meets a man who knows all too well how the Lacy Clay machine runs his district. Another man in Queens worries the district will lose its influence in Congress if they lose Joe Crowley, he has seniority after all.
Taking advantage of more personal, behind the scenes moments, Lears showcases how it is different running as a woman for political office than a man. A man either wears a suit or sports the rolled-up sleeves of the ubiquitous white-collared shirt when wanting to be perceived as more active. Women do not have that luxury. Their attire, makeup, and whole demeanor are dissected by the media in ways they would never dare analyze a man’s choices. But times are tough out there. There is no time to worry about appearance and whether or not someone may think they come off as a “bitch”. If change is going to happen, it will only be because the ordinary citizen, that teacher, community organizer, or bartender, challenges the status quo.
Joe Crowley doesn’t even show up to the first debate, he sent a surrogate who was promptly eviscerated by Ocasio-Cortez who wisely pointed out the in-your-face example of a legislator out of touch with his people. Lears’s cinematic take on Ocasio-Cortez’s arc from unknown worker bee to global superstar is juxtaposed in a wry, crooked smile set of scenes as Crowley finally learns to start showing up, gets nervous, and then ends up rolling up those very same white shirt sleeves. Knock Down the House earned the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award, a sure sign this documentary is both feel-good, inspirational, and at times a call to action. The glass ceiling is broken and the playbook is written – Rachel Lears and her four heroines will now show others how to make the politically impossible, possible.
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