BREAKING THE NEWS (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Leslie Combemale
Fortuitous timing meets skilled filmmaking to create the new film Breaking the News, and with it documentary fans are in for a fascinating and compelling cinematic experience.
Since January of 2020 and up until today, the US and the wider world have lived through some of the most historic events in our lifetime, ranging from a worldwide pandemic to the election of the first Black female VP, and including the insurrection of January 6th, 2021 and the erosion of protections for women as Roe v Wade was overturned, as well as the termination of protection of civil rights for people of color and the LGBTQ community from hundreds of dangerous laws being written across the country.
How grateful we should all be that these historic events coincided with the creation of The 19th*, that launched in 2020 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan news agency centering on women, women of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and all folks who find themselves in the margins. I guess you could say, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Directing trio Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, and Chelsea Hernandez cover The 19th*’s first years in Breaking the News, and it shows just how hard getting any project off the ground was in the midst of a pandemic, as well as how challenging covering all the news that was falling between the cracks was with the small but mighty inaugural staff.
Where Breaking the News is most fascinating is in showing just how much wasn’t being covered before The 19th* came along. Most regular citizens know the news is only covering a small percentage of what’s happening out there, and that there is very little reportage at all about what’s happening to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. It’s another thing to see some of the stories the world may never have known about, were it not for hardworking and inspiring people like Errin Haines, who amplified and made news of the tragedy of Brionna Taylor after months of her story being lost or ignored, and LGBTQ+ reporter Kate Sosin, who framed the overturn of Roe v Wade from the perspective of queer, and even more specifically trans health, something about which few were reporting. It is Kate, actually, who, after some growing pains on the part of founders Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora, led to a shift in company culture and language around inclusivity and gender at The 19th*. You can expect to see all of that shown as part of the documentary.
Breaking the News captures the time during which the staff of The 19th* covered the news that was happening around them that was being ignored in mainstream media, thereby changing the narrative around important topics and issues of race and gender. A now expanded The 19th* is still doing all that, with a bigger staff and better budget, but these filmmakers were there at the beginning. That makes this film as historically important as the work that The 19th* has done and continues to do.
5 out of 5 stars.
