Whether it be environmental dismissal, financial and/or personal loss, ethnic marginalization, or health care equality, far too many good people (and, more specifically, far too many who don’t subscribe to society’s feminine ideal) feel left behind and forgotten by this ‘great nation’. “Knock Down the House,” a documentary conceived by director Rachel Lears – reportedly the day after the 2016 election – follows four empowered women who are mad as hell other American citizens don’t think they matter anymore.
Tracking the family stories and political motivations of these determined individuals running for Congress during the 2018 mid-term elections, ‘Knock’ – which won the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary and the Festival Favorite Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival – looks to be essential viewing. Successfully raising awareness and its budget with a Kickstarter campaign, the upcoming feminist campaign film will be released on May 1, by Netflix.
Here’s the documentary’s synopsis:
Four exceptional women mount grassroots campaigns against powerful incumbents in Knock Down the House, an inspiring look at the 2018 midterm elections that tipped the balance of power. When tragedy struck her family in the middle of the financial crisis, Bronx-born Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to work double shifts as a bartender to save her home from foreclosure. After losing a loved one to a preventable medical condition, Amy Vilela didn’t know what to do with the anger she felt about America’s broken health care system. Cori Bush, a registered nurse and pastor, was drawn to the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood. A coal miner’s daughter, Paula Jean Swearengin was fed up with watching her friends and family suffer from the environmental effects of the coal industry.
One of the most concerning, growing, problems in our nation is how the extreme state of everything has led to the frequent dismissal of day to day humanity. People no longer seem to care what might be going on with any one individual, because whatever it is worrying them – on a large, country-wide scale – is more important than that person. Since a certain someone was elected into office, our interpersonal relations have simmered to a boil, and every day new events seem to trigger more and more social conflict and misunderstanding.
Thankfully, some – less privy to the power and privilege of rich white men – decided they’d had enough. The strength and perseverance of an untold number of oppressed persons – such as these brave female voices – continue to pump lifeblood into the beating heart of this country. Rachel Lears’ upcoming doc simply looks irrefutably inspiring. Check out the new trailer below.
”Knock Down the House” will be available on Netflix and in select theaters on May 1.