A documentary about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) political rise won the coveted audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film, entitled Knock Down the House, is not strictly about the socialist congresswoman from New York who is increasingly known solely as AOC. Instead, it is a film following the primary campaigns of four female candidates — only one of whom is Ocasio-Cortez — that caught the interest of the film’s producer, Rachel Lears. Not only was AOC the only one of the four to win her primary, but she went on to win the election, and become Washington’s political “it girl” of the season.
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary Competition Presented by @Acura, goes to KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE, directed by Rachel Lears. #Sundance pic.twitter.com/r4GdPc0NB5
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) February 3, 2019
The other three women in the film, Amy Vilela (NV), Cori Bush (MO), and Paula Jean Swearengin (WV), were in the theater and received a gushing five-minute standing ovation, according to HotAir.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was originally planning on making the trip to Sundance but canceled, claiming that “complications from the gov. shutdown” would prevent the trip. But film fans were wowed when the Congresswoman made an unannounced video visit via Skype.
“I’m still recovering from the tears myself,” AOC told the Sundance audience. “I’m just so glad that this moment for all four of us was captured and documented not just for the personal meaning of it but for everyday people to see that yes, this is incredibly challenging, yes, the odds are long but also that yes, this is worth it.”
@AOC Documentary, Knock Down the House was as powerful and painful as you can imagine going in. A 5 min standing ovation after the film says this one will be an expensive acquisition and easy Oscar campaign. Simply Incredible! #SundanceFilmFestival2019 pic.twitter.com/npUTnxMasH
— Mat Levy (@PRfilms_Mat) January 28, 2019
The film has already proven a hit for producer-director Lears after winning a 6 million dollar bid from Netflix.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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