Suppressed: The Fight to Vote, the new documentary by Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Making A Killing: Guns, Greed, & the NRA) weaves together personal stories from voters across the state of Georgia to paint an undeniable picture of voter suppression in the 2018 midterm election where Stacey Abrams fought to become the first Black female governor in the U.S. The issues Georgians faced included polling place closures, voter purges, missing absentee ballots, extreme wait times and a host of voter ID issues – all of which disproportionately prevented many students and people of color from casting their ballots. Suppressed: The Fight to Vote features experts, poll watchers and everyday Georgians speaking to the reality of voter suppression and the threat it poses in 2020. In a race that was ultimately decided by 54,723 votes, the film exposes that the basic constitutional right to vote continues to be under siege in America.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
One of the great creative challenges in making films about social justice issues involves deciding how to use the craft and tools of filmmaking to effectively tell the story.
No one wants to see a film that feels like homework, or smacks of political propaganda. Viewers want to be engaged emotionally, and that means connecting on a human level to the people affected by the issue. It also means using camera angles, editing techniques, music cues and a narrative structure that help build the facts of the story piece by piece, leading viewers to their own conclusions about the issue – in this case, the infuriating state of voting rights in our country today.
With “Suppressed,” my team and I spent a lot of time seeking out real people who had experienced various tactics of voter suppression, who could be the faces of our story. My job as director was to find ways to help viewers care about these people and what had happened to them. I felt a great sense of responsibility to “do right” by our subjects, to convey the sense of how blindsided they were by the failure of our system and the complex and even insidious ways their votes were being denied.
Here are a few of the folks who were brave and generous enough to let us tell their stories:
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The list goes on and on, each person and each story a reason to make this film and expose these voter suppression tactics. How long would you wait in line to vote before giving up? (Some voters in Georgia in 2018 waited 4 hours or more, and still couldn’t vote.) How far would you travel to vote if your local polling station was closed? How many phone calls would you make? How much time would you spend? How much effort would you go to before giving up?
The determination of many voters was inspiring, but still many failed to overcome the roadblocks placed before them. This isn’t right, and no voter in this country should accept this. Voting is our fundamental right, and the people who help us tell this story in “Suppressed” deserve our attention, and our action.
-- Robert Greenwald, Director
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WAS INTERVIEWED AND SHARED THEIR STORIES AND EXPERTISE
LOUIS BROOKS BOBBY JENKINS LORETTA BROWN LINDA MARSHALL PEGGY XU ARAH KANG KAVI VU JENNIFER HILL ALEX CROSS NIYA RAY |
CARLOS DEL RIO PHOEBE EINZIG-ROTH JOCELYN KIMBLE NORMAN BRODERICK ERIKA UNDERWOOD-JACKSON CONNIE OGLETREE BARBARA YOUNG STACEY HOPKINS J’LESA WILSON KIARA JACKSON |
TIKAYZIA REED DEANDREA ANGEL WILLIAMS DE’NIYAH SMITH TANISHA ROBERTSON MIKE YOUNT AMNA FAROOQI CHANTEL MULLEN HELEN MCLAUGHLIN SHAYLA ROSE PHILIP EHRENBERG |
CAROL ANDERSON LAUREN GROH-WARGO SEAN YOUNG VANITA GUPTA RICH DEMILLO RASHAD ROBINSON STACEY ABRAMS Congresswoman MARCIA FUDGE MYRNA PEREZ NSE UFOT REV. BILLY M. HONOR |
CLICK HERE FOR CAST'S & EXPERT'S BIO
CREW
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DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY |
PRODUCERS
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
JEANINE AND GUY SAPERSTEIN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
CO-PRODUCER
CHERYL SABAN
CO-PRODUCER
CO-PRODUCER
KEN GROSSINGER
CO-PRODUCER
MICHELINE KLAGSBRUN
SUPERVISING MUSIC PRODUCER
SPENCER PROFFER
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
SPENCER PROFFER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
BJ WILLIAMS-EL
CASEY COOPER JOHNSON EDITOR
MARTIN W. ANDERSEN EDITOR
NOELY MENDOZA ADDITIONAL EDITING
JOSE HO-GUANIPA ADDITIONAL EDITING
CHRIS ROGERS ADDITIONAL EDITING
TIM COLLINS MOTION GRAPHICS
JAISON WILSON ADDITIONAL MOTION GRAPHICS
MARTIN W. ANDERSEN POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
KRISTINA VEGA ASSISTANT EDITOR
ANAIS BERGUES ASSISTANT EDITOR
LAURIE ASHBOURNE RESEARCH LEAD
JASON HACKMAN RESEARCH
JAMIE ROMAN RESEARCH
NOELY MENDOZA PRODUCTION FELLOW
OMAR SAMAD RE-ENACTMENTS PHOTOGRAPHY
CHERYL BEDFORD CLEARANCE MANAGER
AMBERLEE MUCHA CASTING ASSOCIATE
PRODUCTION INTERNS:
TIMOTHY DAILEY
TATIANA GARNETT
NAOMI MIYAMATO
JENNY WHITE
ATLANTA CREW
LAKEISHA ABRAMSON PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
VASHTI SHAKOOR PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
GENESIS LEWIS DIT
ADDITIONAL CREW:
PHELPS HARMON DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY (NYC)
CARL HAYWOOD ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY (ATL)
MATT DEAN COLORIST
BRANDON GRIFFITH SOUND RE-RECORDING MIXER
Legal / Fair Use Counsel Provided by NEW MEDIA RIGHTS
Attorneys
ART NEILL ERIKA LEE ALEXANDRA INMAN |
Insurance Provided by Diann Peterson, ARM, Integro USA Inc.