Knock Down the House (2019)

A look at the people involved with various political campaigns during the 2018 U.S. congressional election.

Director:

Rachel Lears

Writers:

Robin Blotnick, Rachel Lears

Stars:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley

6 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	...	Self - U.S. House Candidate District New York
Cori Bush	...	Self - Running for Congress in Missouri's First District
Joe Crowley	...	Self - Congressman
Paula Jean Swearengin	...	Self - Running for Senate in West Virginia
Amy Vilela	...	Self - Running for Congress in Nevada's Fourth District
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Isra Allison	...	Self - Brand New Congress
Zoltan Boka	...	Self - New York State Human Rights Commission
Ruschell Boone	...	Self
Saikat Chakrabarti	...	Self - Chief of Staff to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Sagar Deshpande	...	Self - Brand New Congress
Jozette Figueredo	...	Self - Amy's Daughter
Shalynne Figueredo	...	Self - Amy's Daughter (archive footage)
Jo-Ann Floyd-Whitehead	...	Self - Community Organizer
Christian Omar Gonzalez	...	Self (as Christian Gonzalez)
Darryl Gray	...	Self - Civil Rights Veteran (as Rev. Darryl Gray)

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

feminism | house of representatives | democrat | socialism | congresswoman | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic elements, language and brief smoking.

Did You Know?

Trivia

Of the four candidates featured in the film, only Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on to win her general election race.

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Connections

Features Face the Nation (1954)

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Soundtracks

Silent Night
Written by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr
Performed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

User Reviews

An emotional journey

In politics hindsight is 20/20. This documentary naturally cannot escape this fact but it matters little, for here we are given the role of the fly on the wall, as we follow a class of challengers to the democratic machine. This entails a focus on the emotions of this journey, from the beginning where no one cares to the end whether in defeat or victory.

A focus on the tactics of organizing a movement, or any logic on the asymmetry of struggle against these powerful incumbents, gets overshadowed by that of the personality of the characters involved. This makes for an entertaining emotional drama but one is left hungry for more details on how a campaign is won. Or lost as is the case for many of the candidates.

Still this is a decent documentary worth your time if you're interested in the zeitgeist of our moment in time, but I doubt it will have staying power. It spends too much time talking to the wishes of the democratic underdog, and not enough on the work required to win. The most interesting exception to this is when Ocasio-Cortez goes through the reasoning behind hers and her opponents election flyers. This is when we get to see the intelligence behind the charisma. More of that please!

As for those who give this one or ten stars the less said the better.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 May 2019 (USA)

Also Known As:

Knock Down the House

Filming Locations:

Kentucky, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artemis Rising Foundation, Atlas Films, Jubilee Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1