Worth: $18.00
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Intro:
…a superb documentary that gives us an inside look at the legal battles that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have been facing during the Trump administration.
The Fight is a powerful and gripping documentary about the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Using a handful of case studies, the filmmakers expertly illustrate the range of the ACLU’s work and the tireless dedication of its staff and attorneys in the New York office.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a nonprofit organisation that was founded in 1920 “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
Over the opening credits, we hear US President Trump reciting the oath of office at his inauguration, promising – amongst other things – “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
We then jump to January 27, 2017 – one week after the country’s 58th presidential inauguration. All over the country, thousands of people are demonstrating, protesting the new administrations’ sudden and draconian actions against travelers from “Muslim countries” and immigrants seeking asylum. We see ACLU lawyers, as well as sympathetic activists, mobilising in response, and within the first four minutes of this compelling documentary, we see their first victory.
This is a dynamic and engaging doco that hits the ground running, immediately plunging us into high-stakes dramas of various individuals facing immediate deportation. The Fight goes on to clearly chart, in painstaking detail, the efforts of these activists in defense of abusive actions ordered by the new administration.
Directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres capture the thrills of victory and the devastation of defeat in these deeply personal battles. The storytellers put a human face on every story told, delivering harrowing true stories with the right amount of necessary detail, as well as infusing these real-life dramas with moments of humour and poignant emotion.
When a mother is separated from her child, a soldier is threatened with losing his career, a young woman’s right to choose is imperiled at the pleasure of a government official, and the ability of citizens to exercise their basic right to vote is threatened, the consequences are both individual and far-reaching, with the potential to have a devastating impact on future generations.
Combining all kinds of sourced footage, the filmmakers use split screen to excellent effect to demonstrate parallel narratives and to build tension. Another excellent filming technique is the use of illustrations of scenes inside the courtrooms where cameras are not permitted.
The film masterfully tracks these four recent ACLU cases, never losing the narrative thread of any of them, giving us a fascinating deep dive into winning strategies and highlighting the lawyers’ shrewd and dogged investigation.
Winner of the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance earlier this year, The Fight is a superb documentary that gives us an inside look at the legal battles that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have been facing during the Trump administration. This is an important documentary that does the work of exploring serious issues of great significance to all American citizens.
Although they have been fighting for civil rights for 100 years, the resources, energies and commitment of the ACLU has never been tested quite so hard as in the past four years; to date they have issued close to 150 Lawsuits against the Trump Administration for violations of the US Constitution.
https://www.docplay.com/shows/the-fight
