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ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY – Movie of the Week, January 15, 2021

Jennifer Merin , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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If what happened in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, took you completely by surprise, then you’re overdue to watch Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus’ powerful (and AWFJ EDA Award-winning!) documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy. As the film makes abundantly clear through compelling interviews and extensive documentation, the horrifying acts of domestic terrorism that took over our computer and TV screens a few days ago are the direct result of the United States’ legacy of racism and voter suppression.

All you need to do is look at the history of (dis)enfranchisement and leadership in this country to see the thread that connects the events of this week with 1776 — and not in a patriotic, we-love-the-Founding-Fathers kind of way. All In unspools that history in a clear, well-documented fashion that’s likely to leave you both outraged and inspired. From the United States’ earliest days up through the 2020 presidential primaries, it details how many of those in power have gone to extreme lengths to make it difficult to impossible for huge swaths of the American population to vote. Gerrymandering, poll taxes, literacy tests, voting machine shortages, polling location closures: It’s all about keeping elections in the hands of those who consider themselves the “real” Americans — i.e. conservative White men. Continue reading.

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for AWFJ.org, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, NY Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).