Directed by:
Rachel LearsCinematography:
Rachel LearsCast:
Alexandria Ocasio-CortezVOD (1)
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young, bold Puerto Rican bartender from the Bronx, works double shifts to save her family’s home from foreclosure. Struggling with her own financial problems, she knows many of her neighbors are also hard-pressed to make a living. In order to bring representation to one of the most marginalized constituencies in America, Alexandria runs for office. This film follows four women - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin - who join a movement of insurgent candidates to topple incumbents in an electric primary race for Congress. At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women - all political outsiders - unite to do what many consider impossible. Their efforts result in a legendary upset. This seamlessly edited and heart-wrenching character story captures these four women’s unlikely journey to inspire Americans to get fired up about the new faces of politics. Director Rachel Lears gives viewers intimate and unprecedented access to the first days of Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, revealing the candidate’s fierce fight to be elected the country’s youngest member of Congress. (Sundance Film Festival)
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This documentary illustrates the problems of today’s America and the Democratic politicians who decided to solve them. Unlike their rivals on both sides of the political spectrum, they intend to do that by actually listening to the working class, to people who are resentful of the fact that no one is fighting for them. The filmmakers focus the most attention on a former waitress from the Bronx who became a congresswoman due not only to her stunning charisma, high intelligence and moral integrity, but also to her clear vision for the future. Better than the old-guard Democrats who chiefly want to hold on to power (and lack the energy to implement real changes), she understood that Trump’s intimidation tactics do not make a political platform. It is quite understandable that Alexandria (“the Great”) Ocasio-Cortez and her touching and inspiring life story (after her father died when she was nineteen, she left a non-profit and began working eighteen-hour shifts at a bar to support her family), thanks to which you will believe that change for the better is still possible, occupy the greater share of screen time (from which Netflix duly benefited when promoting the film). At the same time, it is regrettable that this documentary does not fulfil its initial promise to provide a closer look at the environment of American politics from the perspective of women. Even without striving for timelessness, however, it is a film that will fill with enthusiasm (at least) everyone who is a socialist, feminist and not a complete nihilist. 80%
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