Knock Down the House
Feature length film Completed 2019
Director
Rachel Lears
Director
Robin Blotnick
Producer
Sarah Olson
Doc Society helped with
Production
Follow the film
After losing her father in the midst of the financial crisis, Bronx-born Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to work double shifts in a restaurant to save her family’s home from foreclosure. When her daughter died from an undiagnosed, 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 was drawn into the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood.Paula Jena Swearengin grew sick of burying family and friends to environmental illnesses caused by the coal industry. All four women understood that their lives were affected by politics, but as they dug deeper into the obstacles their families and communities faced, each discovered a brick wall: the influence of lobbyists and corporations on our political system.
At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, Amy, Alex, Cori and Paula decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever.
Crew
Everyone likes an underdog story, and when the underdog is as eloquent, passionate and righteous as these four women are, the final reels of this film feel like a Rocky movie.
Guardian
Jan. 29, 2019
In the end, Lears finds the hope that she is looking for. It's hard to resist a candidate who is so fresh, so new, so perfectly now.
London Evening Standard
May 3, 2019
As the primary results pour in, Knock Down the House becomes the electoral equivalent of the Death Star raid in Star Wars.
Observer
March 5, 2019
Watch this, and you're watching a revolution, one that will make a lot of viewers stand up and cheer.
Globe and Mail
May 1, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez comes increasingly alive in "Knock Down the House."
Los Angeles Times
April 30, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez quickly, and unsurprisingly, emerges as the focus. She's a ready-made camera presence: sharp, young, emphatic and a tremendous, blazingly confident public speaker.
New York Times
April 30, 2019
Try making it through Rachel Lears' documentary, about four fearless working-class women challenging powerful incumbents in the 2018 primaries, without getting fully fired up.
Entertainment Weekly
Jan. 31, 2019
