Worldwide rights to an untitled voting rights documentary from Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés have been acquired by Amazon Studios. A press release announced the news.
Prominently featuring insights from politician, lawyer, and author Stacey Abrams, and in anticipation of the upcoming 2020 presidential election, the timely doc examines the issue of voter suppression in the United States. The project will offer “an insider’s look into laws and barriers to voting that most people don’t even know is a threat to their basic rights as citizens of the United States.”
“Working with Stacey Abrams is the honor of a lifetime,” said Garbus and Cortés. “The story of voting rights is not just one of the Civil Rights Movement and the 1960s. It’s a story for right now. It’s a monster movie where you think you’ve mortally wounded the beast, but it keeps rearing its ugly head, as last week’s primary in Georgia so painfully demonstrated.”
The June 9 Georgia primary in question saw voters in counties across the state experiencing hours-long lines and voting machine issues at polling stations — a situation which Abrams later condemned as “an unmitigated disaster.”
“Raising the alarm about voter suppression is critical to the integrity of our democracy,” Abrams said of the doc. “The failure of state leaders in Georgia and other states across the country to protect the rights of voters, as seen in the 2018 election and 2020 primaries, must be exposed and it must be stopped,” the politician emphasized. “Justice in our criminal justice system and the sacred right to vote are not equal for all Americans and we must find a way to change these systematic inequalities.” At least several states have a history of voter suppression disproportionately affecting Black and Latino communities.
The film is currently in post-production, produced by Story Syndicate’s Garbus and Dan Cogan, Cortés, and Abrams. A theatrical release is planned for this year, to be followed by a release on Amazon Prime Video.
Garbus is a two-time Oscar nominee. She received 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. She also received Emmy noms for “The Fourth Estate,” “Bobby Fischer Against the World,” and “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.” Her most recent credits include docuseries “The Innocence Files,” and Amy Ryan-starrer “Lost Girls,” her narrative feature debut.
Cortés executive produced “Precious,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two. Her other producer credits include “The Apollo,” “Double Play,” and “Shadowboxer.” Cortés recently made her directorial debut with “The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion,” which she co-directed with Farah Khalid.
Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia in 2018, after winning more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. She is the first Black woman and first Georgian to deliver a Response to the State of the Union, and is also a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award.
