Knock Down the House
Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud
5 mins
3 key insights
Visual, audio & text
Knock Down the House follows four women, outsiders to the political establishment, who are attempting to unseat incumbent Democrats across the United States in the 2018 primary elections.


Knock Down the House

Knock Down the House
by Jacques Perrin
Overview
In 2018, the organization Brand New Congress worked to select and nominate progressive candidates across the country to go up against establishment Democrats in the primary elections. Knock Down the House focuses on four of these women: Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearengin, Amy Vilela, and, most notably, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Rachel Lears is known for her journalism about the Occupy movement, as well as previous films like Birds of Passage and The Hand that Feeds, focusing respectively on Uruguayan musicians and undocumented workers. Lears and her husband co-founded the production company, Jubilee Films to tell engaging stories across borders and identities.
Although only Ocasio-Cortez won her particular primary, the documentary offers incredible insight into the ways that each of the campaigns succeeded and failed. Focusing on the issues that these progressive candidates spearheaded in their historic campaigns, Knock Down the House is both a historical document and a blueprint for grassroots change in politics.
Favorite quote

If we elect working people, working people can have representation in Congress.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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