You could argue that the documentary “The Fight” takes on too much, because it juggles four different court cases on four different, vitally important subjects, jumping back and forth between the quartet of cases and trying to give them all their proper due in its hour-and-a-half running time.
Or you could argue that “The Fight” takes on too little, because those four cases are supposed to give us a sense of all of the work that the near 300 lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union do. That’s an impossible task, since the ACLU has already filed close to 150 lawsuits against the Donald Trump administration alone.
Or you could decide, as I did, that “The Fight,” like a cinematic version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” does it just right: It picks four cases that give a good overview of the ACLU’s work and all carry huge stakes; it follows lawyers who are articulate and interesting guides through the issues; and it gives each of the cases enough time to play out and also add up to a rich portrait of a complex organization.
An exemplary work of nonfiction storytelling that won a special jury prize after its premiere at Sundance, the film from directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres and producer Kerry Washington won’t persuade those who, in this hyper-partisan age, look upon the ACLU as left-wing zealots (even though it has also fought for things like allowing the far-right protestors in Charlottesville to march, a decision that the film makes clear was the subject of much internal dissension).
But for those who consider the current administration a dangerous one, “The Fight” is a stirring chronicle of resistance in a crucial battleground, the courts. And it’s one who gives us gloriously human heroes – the immigrant rights advocate who’s eloquent arguing cases in the courtroom but inept when his cellphone battery runs down, the transgender lawyer who’s reluctant to argue a trans case because he thinks the case might be stronger argued by a cisgender lawyer.
Lee Gelernt, one of the ACLU’s highest-profile lawyers, is the immigrant rights advocate, who is seen in the film challenging the Trump administration’s ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. Chase Strangio is the trans lawyer, who in the film works with fellow attorney Joshua Block to challenge the ban on transgender people in the military. Brigitte Amiri from the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project is shown advocating for a pregnant teenage immigrant who has been barred from accessing abortion services, while Dale Ho files suit to stop the administration’s proposal to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.
Those four cases overlap throughout “The Fight,” but there’s never a letdown when the film shifts from one to another, and never a feeling that any of the lawyers or their cases are being shortchanged by the filmmakers. Made up of verité footage interspersed with talking-head interviews, the film is in some ways an ad for the ACLU, albeit one that takes the measure of some troubling history – but it is also an enlightening and even exciting look at a fierce battle for the future of this country.
If you’ve been following the news for the last few years – and if you haven’t, this isn’t really a movie for you – then you probably have a good idea which of these lawyers succeed. Suffice it to be said that while the ACLU encounters its share of disappointments in the film, it also scores some resounding victories.
But a couple of things hang over the organization. One is the violence in Charlottesville in 2017, which some in the ACLU think was made possible by the legal support it provided for the far-right marchers. And the following year saw the unexpected retirement of left-leaning Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was replaced by the second Trump appointment, the far more conservative Brett Kavanaugh.
Those events deepen the sense that the ACLU is not exactly tilting at windmills, but definitely fighting an array of formidable foes. At one point in the film, Ho says that he was looking forward to the 2016 election because he figured he’d be able to spend more time with his family once it was over – but then Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump and everything changed.
“If I’m not going to be a civil rights lawyer now, then when?” he asks.
“The Fight” has an answer, which is that the time is now. It’s an answer that may well hit home with many of the film’s viewers – and while Ho also says, “it’s not going to be lawyers in court, it’s going to be people who turn the ship around,” the film also makes it clear that those people will probably need some really good lawyers to do it.
Magnolia Pictures and Topic Studios release “The Fight” in theaters and on-demand on July 31.
10 Best Documentaries of the 2010s, From 'OJ: Made in America' to 'The Invisible War' (Photos)
Facts are so often stranger than fiction: The truth can be so terrible that we struggle to believe it, or so joyous and full of life that we’re inspired or moved. The past decade has seen a boom in the documentary space as streaming platforms have invested in their production and proliferated their distribution opportunities. So many docs that could have made this list, from those that have inspired public policy changes to others that captured gorgeous slices of life often overlooked, and even a few that pushed the visual boundaries of what’s possible in non-fiction storytelling. Here are a handful of the best documentaries from the previous decade:
10. "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" Alison Klayman’s documentary may have been many Americans’ introduction to Ai Weiwei, the outspoken artist (whose work has found a devoted following on social media) and whose voice that the Chinese government has threatened to silence more than once. Not only does Klayman’s extensive film retrace many of the highlights in the artist’s career; she also uses his story as a case study of the pressures artists in China face when standing up to the country’s authoritarian government.
9. "The Invisible War" Years ahead of the #MeToo movement, director Kirby Dick and co-writer Amy Ziering burst open the topic of sexual assault in the military with their painfully honest and eye-opening documentary. In “The Invisible War," multiple members of the armed forces detail how they were assaulted or raped by fellow soldiers or commanders and how they felt victimized a second time by the army’s failure to take action. In addition to picking up an Oscar nomination, the documentary was so effective in its mission to raise awareness of the issue that the Pentagon responded by overhauling how it investigates and oversees cases of sexual assault.
8. "O.J.: Made in America" You can argue over whether Ezra Edelman’s multi-part episodic documentary qualifies as television show or a film (the Academy gave it a Best Documentary Oscar before creating new rules that would make it ineligible), but Ezra Edelman’s comprehensive look at the rise and astronomical fall of one of pop culture's most celebrated athletes was a riveting event for many viewers. In addition to rare archival footage and numerous interviews, Edelman's film also put O.J. Simpson’s life into historical context, connecting the dots as to why the sports star would often play down his blackness to appeal to white audiences in the 1970s and examining the various responses to the “trial of the century” in the 1990s.
7. "Hale County This Morning, This Evening" Skipping conventional storytelling approaches like using a narrator or including a series of talking-heads interviews, RaMell Ross chose a nonlinear route for his feature debut. Through evocative footage and observational shots, Ross creates a portrait of the black community of Hale County, Alabama, that’s like few other documentaries. His camera is more of a free-floating spirit through the area, quietly observing the nuances between different groups and individuals at the intersection of race and class. Even with its experimental nature, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” earned an Oscar nomination.
6. "This is Not a Film" Forbidden by the Iranian government from making a movie, directors Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb record Panahi on an iPhone as he’s stuck at home under house arrest. At its core, the documentary is a protest film, a tool for discussing the limitations of persecuting artists in the country while defying the government’s orders by making a documentary. Politics aside, “This is Not a Film” also has a very day-in-the-life quality as it follows Panahi through stories about his previous works while as he prepares to stage future projects within the confines of his home.
5. "Dawson City: Frozen Time" In 1976, the small northern town of Dawson City unearthed an unlikely treasure trove of rare silent films in various states of decay. Decades later, Bill Morrison artfully composed fragments of these movies with other archival material and photos to tell the story of this town in a remote part of Alaska and the number of famous (or infamous) souls passed through it over its history. The found silent-movie footage from nitrate prints that survived the area’s harsh winters underground vary in their state of decomposition, but Morrison incorporates these so-called damaged works into the narrative.
4. "I Am Not Your Negro" Raoul Peck connects an unfinished James Baldwin novel about the murders of three of his friends who were leaders of the civil rights movement -- Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- to the present-day protests of Black Lives Matter in a visceral documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Incorporating interview footage and letters, Peck conjures up Baldwin’s insightful voice to echo the works of years ago, a haunting reminder of how far equality has yet to go in the struggle against racial discrimination.
3. "The Grand Bizarre" At no point is there a singular character to follow or voice-over narration to guide us. Instead, Jodie Mack’s dazzling stop-motion animated documentary just washes over its audiences with a fury of colors, patterns and textures of materials from around the world. This inventive documentary explores heady themes of globalization, mass production, cultural identity, travel, commerce and connectivity through the journey of several fabric swatches as they traipse around the world in immaculately arranged configurations, accompanied by Mack’s playfully evocative score. Borders and barriers fall away as the materials come to life.
2. "Cameraperson" Kirsten Johnson steps out from behind the camera to become the subject of her own moving documentary about her work and life outside the frame. Her memoir-doc includes home movies of her family alongside a number of movies she shot throughout her career, including “Derrida,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Happy Valley,” “Citizenfour” and “Very Semi-Serious.” It’s a delicate balance between the Johnson audiences have come to know through her work and the person whose life exists outside the camera that’s taken her to all these corners of the world.
1. "The Act of Killing" Shocking. Stomach-churning. Joshua Oppenheimer and an anonymous co-director uncover the humanity and the monstrosity behind some of the men who led death squads during Indonesia’s war against Communists. Using the guise of creating an extravagant movie about the men’s life stories, “The Act of Killing” gets its subjects to reveal dark secrets and dredge memories so awful, it makes them physically ill. They may never face the consequences for their actions, but this wildly fascinating and disturbing documentary captures perhaps one of the strangest confessions ever on film.
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Decade in Review: ”The Grand Bizarre“ and ”Cameraperson“ rank among the highlights of the decade
Facts are so often stranger than fiction: The truth can be so terrible that we struggle to believe it, or so joyous and full of life that we’re inspired or moved. The past decade has seen a boom in the documentary space as streaming platforms have invested in their production and proliferated their distribution opportunities. So many docs that could have made this list, from those that have inspired public policy changes to others that captured gorgeous slices of life often overlooked, and even a few that pushed the visual boundaries of what’s possible in non-fiction storytelling. Here are a handful of the best documentaries from the previous decade:
