Synopsis
Directors:
Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, Eli Despres
96 min, US, 2020
A real-life legal thriller, many times over, The Fight follows the dedicated attorneys of the ACLU as they face off against the Trump Administration’s myriad assaults on civil liberties. “Filled with raw emotion and real-world immediacy” (Indiewire), this inspiring, dramatic film follows four lawyers as they take on such hot-button topics as abortion access; the travel ban; the 2020 census question; family border separations; and the transgender military ban. Filmmakers Steinberg, Kriegman, and Despres (2017 Sundance winner Weiner) nimbly balance these high-stakes national issues with intimate, affable, observational portraits of the lawyers themselves, struggling and stumbling their way through trial preparations, charging their cellphones, and the painful human toll of the verdicts. Winner of Sundance’s Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, The Fight is “powerful, necessary, and illuminating” (POV Magazine).