Politics & Film Series: Knock Down the House (2019)

When tragedy struck her family in the midst of the financial crisis, Bronx-born Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to work double shifts in a restaurant to save her home from foreclosure. After losing a loved one to a preventable medical condition, Amy Vilela didn’t know what to do with the anger she felt about America’s broken health care system. Cori Bush was drawn into the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood. Paula Jean Swearengin was fed up with watching her friends and family suffer and die from the environmental effects of the coal industry.

At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever. Without political experience or corporate money, they build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Their efforts result in a legendary upset. The possibilities and problems of genuine grassroots campaigns are movingly outlined.

This is the final film in a five-part series entitled HOW IN THE WORLD DID WE GET HERE?? American Politics and Film.

Michael Krasner, political science professor emeritus and long-time political activist, designed this series to provide an entertaining framework for political analysis, and will introduce each film and then lead in-depth discussions after each showing.