TRUE STORIES A LOOK AT RECENT FILMS FROM OBERLIN ALUMNI DOCUMENTARIANS
Oberlin alumni documentary filmmakers have kept busy these last couple of years, despite the pandemic. Often collaborating with fellow alumni and Oberlin faculty, these filmmakers have tackled a wide variety of topics. They include the increase in women running for public office in the 2018 midterm elections, a camp for disabled people that became a catalyst for disability rights activism, California prison inmates risking their lives to fight wildfires, the plight of economically battered Youngstown, Ohio, and its residents, and the difficulties experienced by the mentally ill—and by those who try to care for them. The films are informative and often inspiring, even if the material they present isn’t always easy to witness. Here is a small sampling of recent documentaries—many available for viewing at film festivals and on streaming platforms—written, directed, or produced by Oberlin alumni. 20
SURGE Directed and produced by Hannah Rosenzweig ’97 and Wendy Sachs
In 2018, two years after Donald Trump’s surprise election as president, 574 women filed papers to run for the House of Representatives—a new record. More than 120 women Democrats would win their primaries. Surge, directed and produced by Hannah Rosenzweig ’97 and Wendy Sachs, tells the stories of three of these House challengers: a labor attorney named Liz Watson in Indiana, former journalist Jana Lynne Sanchez in suburban South Dallas, and former nurse Lauren Underwood in rural Illinois. The film is an intimate portrait of modern campaigning from the point of view of the candidates. (Refreshingly, it skips the mechanics of races—including covering the campaign managers and number crunchers that professional political reporters are more typically plugged into.) It opens with Trump’s surprise victory and then follows the decision by Sanchez, Watson, and
Underwood to enter electoral politics. None was handpicked by the party. Their motivation was personal. All ran in districts Democrats had given up on decades earlier. This is a film about people and their desire to make their country better. Anyone who has been in politics, or covered such races, will recognize that the film gets this personal part right—the good, the bad, and the exhausting— especially during the primaries. We see Watson, Sanchez, and Underwood driving themselves around in cars about to give out from all the miles. We watch the novice candidates knocking on strangers’ doors and hearing people talk about their worries. We see Underwood’s mother’s pride in her daughter. We see the candidates and their arc as they gain momentum. The filmmakers won the candidates’ trust, which is crucial, though they don’t delve into the personal dramas that usually occur in campaigns—fights with spouses, firing of staff, or screwups by volunteers. At this level, at least initially, politics isn’t ugly, it’s aspirational.