Kerry Washington speaks on powerful ACLU documentary ‘The Fight’

The documentary will be available on demand July 31

Jul 24, 2020

It’s almost time for Kerry Washington to unveil her powerful documentary, The Fight, to the world and it’s definitely worth watching.

At this defining moment in our nation’s history, the film follows four determined ACLU attorneys as they battle over critical issues, including LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, voting rights, and immigration.

Of course, they only scratch the surface on the turmoil considering the American Civil Liberties Union has actually filed 173 lawsuits against the current administration.

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Here’s the official synopsis:

“Only days after the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump, furious Americans gathered at airports across the country in protest of the Muslim ban. But it was the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union, waging the fight in federal court, that turned the tide, staying the executive order on grounds of unconstitutionality. The ACLU has never granted access to its offices, even as its battles — on the fronts of abortion rights, immigration rights, LGBT rights, and voting rights — have become more timely and momentous than ever.”

The documentary, directed by Eli B. Despres, Josh Kriegman, and Elyse Steinberg, premiered at Sundance in January. The cases examined chronicle the attorney’s quest to protect abortion rights, challenge a census question on citizenship, tackle immigrant family separations, and the transgender military ban.

theGrio caught up with one executive producer Kerry Washington, as well as Brigitte Amiri and Dale Ho, two of the inspiring ACLU attorneys who are relentlessly fighting for our rights.

One of the most striking things about the documentary is realizing that we have endured so many atrocities it has become hard to keep track of them. According to Washington, that’s a “tactical” occurence.

“The multiple attacks, the repetition of attacks, the just the the the mass of attacks that are happening on every front to our civil rights and civil liberties is strategic on the part of his administration because it is meant to numb and overwhelm,” she says.

“I felt that it’s important for us to see what these heroes are doing so that when we wake up in the morning and in order to survive and cope… we can wake up and think about the ACLU and know that they are holding space for all of those fights and not one person, but that together they are on the front lines of all of those fights with us and for us.”

Check out the full interview above.

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