And She Could Be Next

I decided to see this two-part documentary from the POV series of PBS while waiting for results to be reported from the two 2021 run-off elections in Georgia for control of the United States Senate, which seemed appropriate given that the politics of the state feature prominently in the program. Although about 2018 midterm campaigns, this remains especially relevant today, too, because it concerns the important Democratic voting blocs of people of color and especially women thereof and the registration and voting-rights activism of Stacey Abrams, who although she acrimoniously lost her race for governor has been credited for her party's success in the Southern, formerly-reliably-red state in the 2020 presidential election and in regaining control of the Senate. It should also be noted, given the doc's focus on women-of-color politicians, that the tie-breaking voter in the 50-50 Senate will be Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who makes a brief appearance in the aptly-titled "And She Could be Next" and who will be the first African-American and Asian-American VP as well as occupying the highest elected office a woman ever has in American history.

This was recommended to me by Andrew Chrzanowski on Letterboxd after I gave a mixed review for "All In: The Fight for Democracy" (2020), where I complained about the reliance on "voice of God" narration and talking heads over a more-observational approach to covering grass-roots politicking. Indeed, "And She Could be Next" is much better in this respect. Most of its over-three-hours runtime is spent following the candidates, their staff and volunteers knocking on doors, making phone calls and participating in rallies. Even the interviews take place with the women in action and on the move--in the midst of their campaigns. I'm not interested in sitting in an echo chamber, so I much prefer this style over the documentary approach of lecturing me, especially when I already agree with and am familiar with the arguments. Plus, I think it's more effective when the camera merely follows the campaigns.

That's not to say there isn't editorializing. One especially effective bit of editing is when news interviews of white voters reporting no problems voting are juxtaposed with scenes of long lines, malfunctioning equipment and other shenanigans, including Abrams herself having her right to vote questioned, taking place in predominately-black neighborhoods. Of course, all of the subjects of the documentary are Democrats, too, who support voter rights as opposed to the undermining of the democratic process.

It also helps that all of the candidates are interesting, which I think was a problem with "Knock Down the House" (2019), where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another cameo in this one, clearly outshined the rest of the cast. Besides Abrams, "And She Could be Next," however, features AOC's fellow "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib, who along with Bushra Amiwala, the latter of whom also highlights youth participation in politics, brings attention to the role of the religious minority of Muslim Americans, Congresswoman Lucy McBath advocating against the sort of gun violence that killed her son, and Representatives from California, Maria Elena Durazo, and Texas, Veronica Escobar, focus on Latina and Mexican border issues. Surprisingly, given the focus on contacting people in person or by phone calls, this doc also does a better job than "Knock Down the House" by incorporating the importance of social media, including its negative consequences--racist tweets and such--in politics.

Mostly, there's a neat symmetry here in the representation of the growing demographics of women of color, from them being represented democratically by women of color in political office and on screen in "And She Could be Next" by filmmakers who are also women of color.