''Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down'' is a 2022 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film directed by and Betsy West. It follows Gabrielle Giffords as she recovers from the 2011 shooting. It had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

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

Premise

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

congresswoman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords becomes partially paralyzed and has a language impairment

aphasia Aphasia, also known as dysphasia, is an impairment in a person's ability to comprehend or formulate language because of dysfunction in specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine, but aph ...

Production

Initially, the film was set to follow Gabrielle Giffords 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, retired astronaut, and former United States Navy, naval officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from Arizona, a seat he ha ...

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 Betsy West would direct a documentary film revolving around Gabrielle Giffords, with CNN Films and Time Studios set to produce.

Release

The film had its world premiere at

on March 12, 2022. Shortly after, Briarcliff Entertainment 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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the film earned $75,124 from 302 theaters in its opening weekend.

Critical response

The

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

reported an approval rating of 100% based on 47 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 English-language documentary films Briarcliff Entertainment films Gabby Giffords