''Knock Down the House'' is a 2019 American
documentary film directed by
Rachel Lears
Rachel Lears is an American independent documentary filmmaker. She is the director of ''Knock Down the House'', a documentary film about four women running for Congress in the 2018 midterms, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The film premiered a ...
. It revolves around the 2018 congressional
primary campaigns of
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...
,
Amy Vilela,
Cori Bush
Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, registered nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for . The district includes all of the city of ...
and
Paula Jean Swearengin
Paula Jean Swearengin (born June 13, 1974) is an American activist and politician who was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in West Virginia, and a candidate in the Democratic primary for the state's other Senate seat in 2 ...
, four
progressive Democrats endorsed by
Justice Democrats
Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee founded on January 23, 2017, by former leaders from the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyle ...
and
Brand New Congress
Brand New Congress is an American political action committee with the mission to elect hundreds of new progressive congressional representatives in line with the campaign's political platform.
Background
Brand New Congress is a volunteer-le ...
who ran in that year's
midterm elections
Apart from general elections and by-elections, midterm election
refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term ...
.
The film had its world premiere at the
2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019. It was released on May 1, 2019, by
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
and received widespread critical acclaim.
Synopsis
The film follows four female Democrats who decided to run for Congress in the
2018 United States elections:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...
of New York,
Amy Vilela of Nevada,
Cori Bush
Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, registered nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for . The district includes all of the city of ...
of Missouri, and
Paula Jean Swearengin
Paula Jean Swearengin (born June 13, 1974) is an American activist and politician who was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in West Virginia, and a candidate in the Democratic primary for the state's other Senate seat in 2 ...
of West Virginia. The film charts their campaigns in their respective Democratic primaries. The four candidates each run grassroots campaigns against long-time incumbents. Vilela, Bush, and Swearengin lost their
primary elections
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
, but Ocasio-Cortez won her primary and went on to win
the general election. (However, two years later, during the next Congressional election cycle, Bush went on to win her primary and the general election in
Missouri's 1st congressional district
Missouri's 1st congressional district is in the eastern portion of the state. It includes all of St. Louis, St. Louis City and much of northern St Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, including the cities of Maryland Heights, Missouri, Mar ...
, and Swearengin was the Democratic nominee for West Virginia's
Senate race, where she lost to the incumbent by over 40 points.)
Candidates
*
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...
(
New York's 14th congressional district
New York's 14th congressional district is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City, represented by Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The district includes the eastern part of The Bronx ...
)
*
Amy Vilela (
Nevada's 4th congressional district
Nevada's 4th congressional district is a congressional district that was created as a result of the 2010 United States Census. Located in the central portion of the state, it includes most of northern Clark County, southern Lyon County and all ...
)
*
Cori Bush
Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, registered nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for . The district includes all of the city of ...
(
Missouri's 1st congressional district
Missouri's 1st congressional district is in the eastern portion of the state. It includes all of St. Louis, St. Louis City and much of northern St Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, including the cities of Maryland Heights, Missouri, Mar ...
)
*
Paula Jean Swearengin
Paula Jean Swearengin (born June 13, 1974) is an American activist and politician who was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in West Virginia, and a candidate in the Democratic primary for the state's other Senate seat in 2 ...
(
United States Senate – West Virginia, Class 1)
Production
The day after
Donald Trump's election,
Rachel Lears
Rachel Lears is an American independent documentary filmmaker. She is the director of ''Knock Down the House'', a documentary film about four women running for Congress in the 2018 midterms, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The film premiered a ...
began working on her new documentary film.
She reached out to organizations such as
Brand New Congress
Brand New Congress is an American political action committee with the mission to elect hundreds of new progressive congressional representatives in line with the campaign's political platform.
Background
Brand New Congress is a volunteer-le ...
and
Justice Democrats
Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee founded on January 23, 2017, by former leaders from the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyle ...
to find "charismatic female candidates who weren't career politicians, but had become newly galvanized to represent their communities."
[ The search led her to four female candidates: ]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...
of New York, Amy Vilela of Nevada, Cori Bush
Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, registered nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for . The district includes all of the city of ...
of Missouri, and Paula Jean Swearengin
Paula Jean Swearengin (born June 13, 1974) is an American activist and politician who was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in West Virginia, and a candidate in the Democratic primary for the state's other Senate seat in 2 ...
of West Virginia.[ Lears raised $28,111 for the project through ]Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
.[
]
Release
The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019. Shortly after, Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
acquired distribution rights to the film for $10 million. The film was also screened at the True/False Film Festival
True/False Film Fest is an annual documentary film festival that takes place in Columbia, Missouri. The Fest occurs on the first weekend in March (sometimes beginning in late February), with films being shown from Thursday evening to Sunday nig ...
, the Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival is an annual film festival held at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. The festival takes place in February and focuses on films celebrating women and leadership. In addition to showing films, the fest ...
, the 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 ...
, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...
. It was released on May 1, 2019. It was uploaded to YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
by Netflix on April 17, 2020.
Reception
Critical response
On 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 ...
, the film holds an approval rating from critics of 99% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 7.70/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A galvanizing glimpse behind the scenes of a pivotal election, ''Knock Down the House'' should prove engrossing for viewers of all political persuasions." On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Kate Erbland of ''IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
'' gave the film a grade of B, saying, "Stylistically, the film isn't at all fussy: on-screen graphics are straightforward and informative, and Lears leaves the editorializing out of her introductory captions, though the film's score often proves manipulative during the most unnecessary of times." Amy Nicholson of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "That Lears and co-writer Robin Blotnick made a real movie with intelligent camerawork and storytelling on a budget so small that they each pulled double duty as DP and editor, respectively, is a tribute to the energy of every woman who pledged that in 2018 they would make a difference." Leslie Felperin of ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called it "a pretty extraordinary cinematic artifact." Jordan Hoffman of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "While this is not Frederick Wiseman-esque pure 'direct cinema' there are enough sequences that lean into that fly-on-the-wall type of film-making." Nick Allen of '' RogerEbert.com'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and described it as "a worthwhile reminder for American citizens of the importance of making one's voice heard." Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
of ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', who gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, wrote, "The fighting spirit of this female quartet blazes through every frame of this galvanizing film." Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
of ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it "stirring and inspirational".
Accolades
See also
* ''Surge'' (2020 American film) – a similarly themed documentary about women running for Congress in the 2018 United States elections
References
External links
*
* {{IMDb title, 9358052
2019 films
2019 documentary films
2010s feminist films
American documentary films
American feminist films
Democratic Party (United States)
Documentary films about American politicians
Documentary films about elections in the United States
Documentary films about women
Kickstarter-funded documentaries
Netflix original documentary films
Progressivism in the United States
Documentary films about elections
Sundance Film Festival award winners
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Women in Washington, D.C., politics
2010s English-language films
2010s American films