“If the power of the right to vote was truly made available to everyone in America, it would change the future of this nation,” Stacey Abrams says in the trailer for “All In: The Fight for Democracy.” But — between consolidation of voting precincts, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws — that right isn’t available to everyone. Abrams and directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés take on voter suppression in the United States in their new doc.
“The states have figured out how to stop African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, the young, and the poor from voting,” one interviewee explains. Some states kick voters off the rolls if they abstain from a certain number of elections. “In the United States, the right to vote is the only right you can lose simply for not using it,” Abrams stresses.
The implication is clear: the (white male) political establishment doesn’t want people unlike themselves voting, because there’s a strong chance they would be pushed out of office. In the clip, one character describes voter suppression as “Jim Crow 2.0.” As Abrams puts it, “The system that is supposed to protect our democracy didn’t work the way it was supposed to.”
In 2018, Abrams became the United States’ first Black female gubernatorial nominee for a major party when she ran for governor of Georgia. She experienced firsthand the devastating effects of voter suppression in that race. She produced “All In” with Garbus and Cortés.
Garbus received Oscar nods for “What Happened Miss Simone?” and “The Farm: Angola, USA.” She won an Emmy for the former and scored an Emmy nomination for the latter. Her latest project, true crime docuseries “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” concluded earlier this month on HBO.
Cortés’ feature directorial debut, “The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion,” is now on Netflix. “Precious,” “The Apollo,” and “Shadowboxer” are among her producing credits.
“All In: The Fight for Democracy” hits theaters September 9 and will begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video September 18. The filmmakers and Amazon Studios are launching the #ALLINFORVOTING social impact campaign — which battles misinformation about voting, educates first-time voters, encourages communities to vote, and trains citizens on how to recognize and report voter suppression — in conjunction with the film.
