Please and thank you. Although I love her political fire, this documentary isn’t just about AOC’s political opinions. It’s about disruption and wild optimism. It’s about believing that we can do better and then doing better. It’s about people power and grassroots organizing winning over entrenched beliefs of what is and what must be. We need this spirit and attitude heading into 2020.
The documentary covers the upstart primary campaigns of Democrats Cori Bush, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearengin, and, of course, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. There are reviews here and here, but rather than drop spoilers and give you my spin, I’m going to encourage you to head right over to Netflix and watch it for yourselves.
I cried through at least the last 20 minutes (and maybe more). They were tears of frustration over a system that is so incredibly broken, tears of joy because even this broken system can get it right sometimes, tears of relief and grief from all of the campaigns I’ve volunteered on that won and lost, and tears of appreciation for the documentary and for our ability to see AOC’s unfiltered surprise at winning. She is clearly a star in our party. I hope that the spirit she brought into the race stays with her and that her political career continues to blossom and grow. I hope that many years from now, this little gem of a documentary will be a time capsule of the moment when an ordinary American became a great leader.
EDIT: www.netflix.com is the link. Yes, sorry, you do need a Netflix account. For those of you who have never had Netflix there is often a free trial period, but this is not an advertisement for the site. It is also playing at The Landmark Theater in Los Angeles. I am not sure if it is playing elsewhere. www.landmarktheatres.com/...