''Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down'' is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Julie Cohen and

Betsy West Betsy West is an American producer, filmmaker, and video journalist. With Julie Cohen, she has directed four biographical documentary films focusing on American women: ''RBG'' (2018), ''My Name is Pauli Murray'' (2021), ''Julia'' (2021) and '' ...

. It follows

Gabrielle Giffords Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned ...

as she recovers from the 2011 shooting. It had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

on March 12, 2022. It was released on July 15, 2022, by

Briarcliff Entertainment Tom Ortenberg (born 8 August 1960) is an American businessman. Early life and career Ortenberg was born to a Jewish family on 8 August 1960, in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He attended Pennsylvania State University and graduated in 1982. While th ...

Premise

The film follows the recovery and aftermath of the 2011 assassination attempt of congresswoman

. Giffords becomes partially paralyzed and has a language impairment

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in th ...

Production

Initially, the film was set to follow

as she toured the country to support her cause, but was scrapped due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...

provided the filmmakers footage of Giffords recovery, which he shot while she was in the hospital. In January 2022, it was announced Julie Cohen and

would direct a documentary film revolving around Gabrielle Giffords, with

CNN Films CNN Films is a motion picture division of CNN under Warner Bros. Pictures. originally launched in 2012. Its first film, ''Girl Rising'' premiered in spring 2013 in the United States. History On October 8, 2012, CNN announced the creation of CNN F ...

and Time Studios set to produce.

Release

The film had its world premiere at

on March 12, 2022. Shortly after,

acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a July 15, 2022, release. The film premiered on CNN on Sunday, November 20, 2022.

Reception

In the United States and Canada, the film earned $75,124 from 302 theaters in its opening weekend.

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 100% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's consensus reads, "Inspirational and unabashedly political, ''Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down'' pays passionate tribute to its resilient subject."

References

External links

* {{CNN Films 2022 films 2022 documentary films American documentary films Documentaries about politics CNN Films films 2020s English-language films Films directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West 2020s American films Works about gun politics in the United States