The Rise of the AOC Storm in Netflix's 'Knock Down the House'

Early scenes in Rachel Lears’ documentary “Knock Down the House” take place far away from the halls of power. At a New York taco and tequila bar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is filling ice buckets in the basement.

It’s six months before the primary that turned Ocasio-Cortez into a liberal phenomenon. Then trailing far behind in the polls, few expected her to win the race for New York’s 14th district and unseat incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, who had served for two decades and hadn’t faced a primary challenger in 14 years.

“If I were, like, a normal, rational person, I would have dropped out of this race a long time ago,” she says riding an elevator with sanitary gloves on her hands.

″Knock Down the House ,” which premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, is, in movie lingo, an origin story. But while it has come to be known as “the AOC documentary,” it captures a wider political movement. Shot over two years in the lead-up to the 2018 elections, it follows four progressive insurgent candidates, all women, running grassroots campaigns: the Bronx-born Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela of Nevada, Cori Bush of Missouri and Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia.

One of them — you might have heard — won.

“They were all considered long shots. We were looking for people that would be very compelling to watch, no matter what happened,” Lears said in an interview. “We were very interested in races that would involve political machines and very entrenched power structures. We were interested in exploring the nature of power in the United States.”

The attention surrounding Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has raised the profile of “Knock Down the House.” It won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival, where Netflix acquired it for $10 million — the biggest documentary sale ever at the festival.

And given the intense partisan divisions around Ocasio-Cortez, “Knock Down the House” has also been used against the congresswoman by some. The filmmakers have had to combat falsehoods that Ocasio-Cortez profited from the Netflix sale (documentary subjects generally aren’t paid). Still, Ocasio-Cortez has said she’s been approached on the House floor about how much she made from the film.

On Monday, Kellyanne Conway criticized Ocasio-Cortez on Fox News’ “Hannity” for promoting “Knock Down the House” on Twitter the day after the Sri Lanka Easter bombings. (Ocasio-Cortez responded that Conway was “using this as an excuse to stoke suspicion around my Christianity.”)

“There is a lot of speculation about what the film is,” said Lears. “I look forward to it being out there and people can decide for themselves.”

Ocasio-Cortez, who declined to comment for this article, was unable to attend the film’s Sundance premiere in January, citing complications due to the government shutdown.

“Some might be assuming that this is her personal project, and that’s not true at all,” said Lears. “We had complete editorial independence.”

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[dantesos]

And look at where we are TODAY!!! Gives me chills to see our women standing up even in the face of fear, for not giving in and for showing such brilliant resiliency in the face of such adversity.

[mavericks]

As an independent I enjoyed watching this documentary.

[b]

I am really impressed by all those negative comments. It obvious we are dealing with truly profound intellectuals.

[downrightdutch]

Even that AOC parrot (New World Order All Gore?) ‘science’ is absolutely fake. 🤪🤣 What a weird but dangerous commie demagogue; ‘The End of the World in 12 years’🤷‍♂️‼️False prohesy, arrogance and adumbration.
That Beto Poem: “Wax my ass, Scrub my balls...” That monster Beto wrote when he was 15, detailing himself “accelerating a car into a group of children and hearing them scream”. ‼️Mmmh. Okay 🤮dRATS, vote for Betoooo!

[DonFatherTrump]

AOC needs to stick to serving drinks. Until she grows up

[JESUSisLORD]

If you are going to do a propaganda film you should hire Leni Riefenstahl.

[ChicagoBeaver]

The world is gonna end in 12 yrs y'all!!

[Curious_BeingNX]

AOC is phenomenal human being, may be she will bring that into politics, she has many obstacles, but they look surmountable with her at the helm, that's the power of a true leader.

[ppronny]

AOC says growing cauliflower is 'colonial'

[raythedude]

mitt was the better political documentary change my mind

[KevinTheNoobie]

After two terms of Yang, AOC up next ☝

[stevekrumbah]

I see a lot of bad comments I do not support her but I can respect her passion for change and I do think she means well but Social media is not politics and should keep out of politics

[Precious-zbmh]

I thought about canceling Netflix after I saw the documentary in the newly released, and I only kept it because my daughter is on the account and she watches Netflix alot because she canceled her Dish🙄 Hmmm, wonder if AOC gave 70% taxes?

[paulthomas]

the only question to be answered is, is aoc the dumbest politician in US history ?

[elmermuff]

ALWAYS LEAD WITH YOUR 💕💖 The more REAL you get the more UNREAL it's going to get

[AngelAndros]

Pelosey called Crowley wants his white privelage seat back lol....Crowley was the only white person left in the south bronx.

[derekseube]

Taking bets on race of AOC political career and the end of the world. 12/1 odds... Any takers?

[johnhawkins]

Canceled Netflix after i saw THE DIRT 6 times

[_WOR]

She “can’t believe the numbers right now” because she probably can’t count

[deadpoollee]

How does she that much crazy crammed in those eyes