Netflix Documentary Shows Women Winning

The four congresswomen who star in the documentary “Knock Down the House” (Photo Credit: Netflix)

By Nelson Fernandez

“Knock Down the House” is a fantastically moving and ground-breaking narrative of resilience and determination. Starring congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearingen, and Amy Vilela, the May 2019 Netflix original documentary shows women and working-class people of America fighting for a voice in politics. Directed by Rachel Lears, the film is emotionally powerful and resonant as it follows women from New York, West Virginia, Missouri, and Maryland who share the main goal of winning an election.

The stories of these women are presented in a non-linear order, starting and ending with Ocasio-Cortez. They give an inside look into the lives of Bush, Vilela, and Swearingen, and how their struggles inspired them to enter politics and seek to enact change. Shifting back and forth between each woman’s perspective and personal and political motivations, the film does a good job showing how these brave women rose to prominence behind the scenes.

The film opens with Ocasio- Cortez applying makeup as she addresses the double standards and social expectations faced by businesswomen regarding dress code that is not faced by men. Old clips then show her working as a bartender in the Bronx while talking about the mistreatment she received from co-workers and clients in the workplace.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is victorious in “Knock Down the House” (Photo Credit: Netflix)

Ocasio-Cortez states that partisanship between the Democrats and Republicans is not the focus of her campaign; her focus is bridging the divide between the working and upper classes.

The documentary also shows how she and the other three politicians reach out to citizens from their hometowns and gain the support necessary for their campaign. Swearingen, for example, decided to run because she witnessed firsthand how lack of adequate healthcare impacted many residents of her small hometown in West Virginia.

These residents were ignored by the government as they became ill and died of cancer. The film takes the angle that these women ran their campaigns to take power back for their citizens, not for personal gain. Ocasio-Cortez shows that even a top-positioned Democrat with millions of dollars from supporters and huge cash premiums can’t withstand the intensity of working individuals banding together.

To reinforce this point, the film closes with Ocasio-Cortez winning the 2018 debate, where she shares a heartwarming story about the time her late father took her on a trip as a child to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. There her father told her in reference to the House of Representatives, “This is all ours.”