We already knew “Knock Down the House” was one of Sundance 2019’s biggest winners. Rachel Lears’ documentary about four working-class, progressive women running for Congress received strong reviews, took home the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary, and was acquired by Netflix. But now new details have emerged about just how much the streamer shelled out for the doc: a historic $10 million for worldwide rights. And Sundance announced that the film is the winner of the Festival Favorite Award, selected by audience votes from the 121 features screened at this year’s edition of the fest.
According to Deadline, “Knock Down the House’s” deal marks the “biggest documentary sale ever brokered at a film festival.” The outlet is reporting that “nearly every distributor chased deal broker Cinetic Media for ‘Knock Down the House’ including NEON, Focus, Hulu, and Amazon” before Netflix came out victorious.
A press release from Sundance details that “The Festival Favorite is the 29th and final recognition bestowed on this year’s Features.” “This film is a timely and powerful portrait of bold, risk-taking women, all from very different backgrounds and communities, and we knew it would resonate with and inspire audiences,” commented John Cooper, Director of Sundance Film Festival.
In an interview with us, Lears revealed that “Knock Down the House” shows its four characters “taking on political machines in four very different American landscapes as they run insurgent campaigns for Congress in 2018. All of them were motivated by personal experiences to embark on this roller coaster journey. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from the Bronx, was working as a bartender when we started filming, and had to work double shifts in a restaurant to save her family home from foreclosure during the financial crisis. Businesswoman Amy Vilela of Las Vegas lost a loved one to a preventable medical condition, and the anger she felt about America’s broken health care system motivated her to run. Cori Bush, a nurse from near Ferguson, MO, was drawn into the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood. And Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia witnessed the environmental effects of the coal industry take the lives of many family members and friends in her community,” she explained.
“After the 2016 election, I wanted to tell a big story about people changing American politics in big ways and about power — how it works and how to achieve it,” Lears recalled. “I wanted to tell a story about people working to build solidarity across social divides, and about the intersections of economics and injustice based on race, gender, and other aspects of identity.”
Lears previously directed the Emmy-nominated 2014 documentary “The Hand That Feeds,” about undocumented immigrants who take on a New York restaurant chain for abusive working conditions.
