“This was one of those big moments in history and we needed to be there”

An interview with Elyse Steinberg, co-director of The Fight

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.  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. Directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres (2017 Sundance winner Weiner) nimbly balance 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. Doc10 spoke with Steinberg about the genesis of the film, incredible characters, and how small moments come to define the biggest moments in history.

For a lot of the films that we originally programmed for Doc10 in the Spring, I’ve felt that they might look differently to audiences this summer, after all that has happened and is happening. But your film feels just as relevant.

When we started to make this film, we wanted this film to be an invitation for hope and inspiration. The film came about seven days after Trump came into office and issued his Muslim ban, and you see that the ACLU was able to beat back that order and win a victory. We were all feeling down, but here were these lawyers fighting the good fight. Right now, no one can deny that we’re in a critical moment, seeing people take to the streets, seeing the Supreme Court decisions coming down, I think the film will help give people the inspiration to keep fighting.

Can you explain how this film came to be? Because you had this spur of the moment idea, but then it took some time to actually happen, right?

Yes, the night the Muslim ban was enacted, I joined the protestors at the Brooklyn Courthouse. I was steps away from Lee Gelernt [ACLU Deputy Director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project] after he emerged from arguing for an emergency stay order. I saw his face, and he was in total shock and exhaustion, and in awe of the crowds of people chanting ACLU, ACLU, ACLU. And I just felt like in that moment that the film that me and my team needed to make was following Lee and the ACLU over the next three years fighting against Trump. I felt like this was one of those big moments in history and one of the epic battles for civil rights, and we needed to be there. Personally, my mother was a litigator herself for immigrant rights, so I understand these lawyers; they were very familiar to me, and I know what these battles are like.

Pretty much the next week, we went to the ACLU. I had a friend, a law professor, and she made an introduction to Lee. He loved Weiner, so he was interested, and we met with the ACLU, and we said, this is what we want to do: We want to be embedded with you. We want to film you nonstop. And then I get a call after the meeting, and they said, “We appreciate your enthusiasm, but there’s no way you’ll ever made a documentary about the ACLU.” So we were like okay…. Then it was over a series of months that we discussed our vision, and through these conversations, they let us film in limited capacity, and then a trust built up. And also, I think they recognized that we were in a moment that needed to be documented and this was an unprecedented moment in our history.

Like your last film Weiner, another verite film that ended up full of plot twists and revelations, how much do you think you’re just getting lucky when you’re making a film like this?

I think what you look for are first of all incredible characters: People that you want to follow and root for. When we met these characters, they had this visceral sparkle—they were people that you want to live with and follow. Then there’s also this sense that they’re doing something which also has a three-act structure: You have the beginning of the case; there’s a response to a policy; then there’s prep for a trial; and then there’s a verdict. So it had the elements that we look for. But it’s true we didn’t know what would happen.

This is a film about character; can you talk about capturing that moment with Lee unable to charge his cellphone and the reason why it was so important to include it.

Lee is this incredible litigator and he’s worked for the ACLU for over 20 years. But he’s not sophisticated about technology, and it was something that made him relatable. There he was in the middle of this massive case about family separation, trying to write his brief on a tight deadline, and getting tons of phone calls, and having trouble wrestling with his phone charger. And that’s what we wanted to show: how these small moments come to define this big moment in history. That was something that we we’re looking for. Eli, one of the directors who is also one of the editors, has a knack for finding comedic moments and bringing those out. I was telling him we have to work on this scene. And he found a way to crack it. And Lee was a great sport about it—he was like, yeah, that’s me.

Do you see the film as having any role in changing the view of the ACLU? I remember the days when if you were a member of the ACLU, you’d be called a Communist.

What we’re trying to do is stay focused on the lawyers, and what it means to do impact litigation, and what that looks like at the ACLU, showing that hard work, and balancing it with taking care of your children. We didn’t look at the ACLU over the years. Our goal is to show the ACLU in this moment, following in the footsteps of these lawyers, battling Trump.