Gabby Giffords: Won’t Back Down

Julie Cohen and Betsy West have made a resonant documentary, one the reflects its subject’s optimism, which remains firm despite everything that’s happened to her. It is also a film that champions the cause that no doubt will command her attention for the rest of Gifford’s life: the fight for sane gun laws to ratchet down the violence that infects the United States. Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is essential viewing.

No matter how much you think you know about Gabby Giffords, this moving film from directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West is eye-opening, urgent and revelatory. It traces how Giffords, a charismatic and impassioned moderate Arizona Congresswoman with a bright political future, was shot through the head while meeting with her constituents on a January morning in 2011. Giffords miraculously survived but eight others, including a nine year old girl, were killed in the assignation attempt. We get to witness Giffords’ determined, difficult battle to recover her speech and mobility

Julie Cohen and Betsy West have done it again. These two filmmakers shine a spotlight on extraordinary women in our history. Their latest film, Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, is the film we need right now, right at this exact moment. Gabby Giffords is the feminist hero little girls and women idolize in history books. When life and circumstances feel overwhelming, we remember that if Gabby can do it, so can we.

There couldn’t be a timelier documentary these days than Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate, serving first in the Arizona legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. This gutsy gal survived an assassination attempt and would become a co-founder of Giffords.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing gun violence. The doc zeroes in on her grueling healing process, with her husband — Astronaut Mark Kelly, who is currently a junior U.S. senator from Arizona – by her side. We witness as Giffords also struggles with afacisia, the loss of the ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage. She must also wear a special cap to protect what is left of her skull.