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“Knock Down The House,” the long-awaited documentary following 2007 Yorktown High School graduate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 election, has officially gone live on Netflix, creating a new type of buzz.
The film, directed and co-written by Rachel Lears, follows the journeys of four aspiring political candidates, including Ocasio-Cortez - who was a bartender in the Bronx at the beginning of the process - and her surprise upset primary win over longtime incumbent Joe Crowley en route to taking a seat in Congress. According to early reviews, the documentary largely focuses on the progressive campaigns, rather than actual policy, and is a story of “David vs. Goliath.”
Ocasio-Cortez discussed her family and touches on growing up in Westchester during the documentary, saying that when she was about 4 or 5 years old, her “whole extended family chipped in everything that they could for a small down payment on a tiny house about 30 minutes north in a place called Yorktown."
The congresswoman also addresses the backlash she faced for often discussing her Bronx roots during the run-up to the election, often downplaying her history in suburban Westchester.
Others featured in the documentary are Cori Bush in Missouri, Amy Viela in Nevada and Paula Jean Swearengin in West Virginia.
“I started this process working with the organizations Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats to get in contact with the people that they were considering supporting,” Lears told the Guardian. “They were recruiting people, and some of our conversations started before the candidates had even launched their campaign. Each of them saw the value in telling their story even before they knew what the story was going to be.”
"Knock Down The House" is now available on Netflix.
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