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:

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

CLICK HERE FOR CAST'S & EXPERT'S BIO 

CREW

DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY  ROBERT GREENWALD

PRODUCERS 

JUSTIN HARRISON

CASEY COOPER JOHNSON

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS 

JEANINE AND GUY SAPERSTEIN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS 

JIM MILLER

DEVIN SMITH

CO-PRODUCER 

CHERYL SABAN

CO-PRODUCER 

LAURIE ASHBOURNE

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

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