Directed by Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres
USA | 2020 | 96 mins
Source: Magnolia Pictures
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*** Note that immediately following your viewing, you may watch a pre-recorded discussion between Kerry Washington and the four ACLU lawyers featured in the film (Brigitte Amiri, Lee Gelernt, Dale Ho, and Chase Strangio). This conversation is exclusive to virtual cinemas. Additionally, you will have free access to a live Q&A on Sun. 8/2 with the filmmakers and lawyers, moderated by Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post. This will be also be archived and available beyond 8/2.
At this defining moment in American history, THE FIGHT follows a scrappy team of heroic ACLU lawyers in an electrifying battle over abortion rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights and voting rights.
The ACLU had never granted access to its offices until it granted it to the filmmaking team of The Fight, makers of 2016’s award-winning Weiner. Rousing, inspiring and slyly humorous, their latest documentary follows four seismically important cases and a handful of magnetic attorneys. These lawyers may not know how to charge a cell phone or operate a stand-up desk but have persuaded Supreme Court Justices, beating back serious encroachments upon our freedoms.
Plunging viewers into the middle of a massive nighttime protest on the steps of a Brooklyn courthouse, THE FIGHT opens in January 2017 soon after the inauguration of Donald Trump. Immigration rights were under siege.
“I was there that night when the decision came down,” says co-director Elyse Steinberg. “I was on the steps of the Brooklyn Courthouse. And I knew that this was going to be one of those great moments of history. These lawyers were going to be at the center of one of the most significant fights for civil liberties of our time. And we had to be there.”
Steinberg’s experience was the spark that set her team, including co-directors Eli B. Despres and Josh Kriegman, on a journey that would result in this film.
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