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Rachel Lears is an American
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
filmmaker. She is the director of ''
Knock Down the House ''Knock Down the House'' is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Rachel Lears. It revolves around the 2018 congressional primary campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin, four progressiv ...
'' (2019), a documentary film about four women running for Congress in the 2018 midterms, including
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the United States House of Representatives, US representative for New York's 14th congressional distric ...
. The film premiered at
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
in January 2019 and was sold to
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
for $10 million, releasing on May 1, 2019. Her other documentaries include '' The Hand That Feeds'' (2014), about undocumented immigrant workers in a labor dispute with owners at a Manhattan bakery café, and '' To the End'' (2022), about climate change.


Life and education

Lears graduated from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1999, with a BA in Music before earning an MA in Ethnomusicology, an Advanced Certificate in Culture and Media, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. Her doctoral dissertation, titled ''Between Two Monsters: Popular Music, Visual Media, and the Rise of Global Indie in 21st Century Uruguay'' and published in 2012, focuses on the first generation of young Uruguayan artists to come-of-age with digital media. Lears is married to Robin Blotnick, and they have a son. Lears has published numerous articles for ''In These Times'' magazine, an independent, nonprofit magazine dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice. Published works include ''Acoustic Ecology'' in 2004, ''What's Up Silverdocs?'' in 2007, ''The End of Indie?'' in 2010, and ''The Death and Life of Occupy'' in 2012. Lears wrote original music for The Mystery Keys, along with a variety of musicians based in New York City and Montevideo, Uruguay from 2006 to 2010. The Mystery Keys released an EP called “Dance Big People” in January 2009. Lears has collaborated with artist Saya Woolfalk on video art projects that have screened at numerous international galleries and museums since 2008. She was also the 2013 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow during production of '' The Hand That Feeds''.


Jubilee Films

Jubilee Films is a production company started by Lears and Blotnick. According to the company's website, the production house's mission is "to tell smart, nuanced, entertaining stories that transcend borders, engage audiences from all walks of life, and challenge popular assumptions".


Filmography


''Aves de paso/Birds of Passage'' (2009)

''Aves de paso (Birds of Passage)'' is a film about two songwriters who live and perform in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
: Ernesto Diaz, an author and percussionist from Artigas, Uruguay, and Yisela Sosa, a vocalist from Paysandu, Uruguay. Their music reflects their personal journeys of moving away from small hometowns to fulfill career aspirations. ''Aves de paso'' premiered in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2009. It also received a Certificate of Outstanding Achievement in International Feature Film at the Williamsburg International Film Festival and had a national television broadcast in Brazil on Canal Futura in 2010.


''The Hand That Feeds'' (2014)

'' The Hand That Feeds'' (2014) chronicles Undocumented immigrant workers who spar with their employers over low wages and poor work conditions. Mahoma Lopez and other workers at a Hot & Crusty bakery café in New York City send a list of demands to the owners and attempt to unionize after a period of silence. The workers have to win an election at the National Labor Relations Board in order to become a union. Amidst growing support for the workers, they win in a 12–8 decision, but they still have to negotiate terms with management. The company settles with the union workers but then closes a month later. The workers open a makeshift coffee shop on the street in front of Hot & Crusty, while the owners look for new investors. A potential new owner, Anthony Iluzzi, comes to the storefront to meet with Mahoma. Iluzzi is open to cooperating with the workers, but the landlord begins negotiations with Pax, a rival deli chain. The workers continue to protest outside the storefront, and Pax loses interest in the space. After two months of negotiations with Iluzzi, the Hot & Crusty location reopens with an updated contract between workers and owners that includes a voice in the hiring process and other increased benefits. The film follows various characters who are each motivated by the abusive work conditions: Mahoma Lopez, Margarito Lopez, and Gonzalo Jimenez are sandwich makers at Hot & Crusty bakery café, and Diana O. and Gretel A. are cashiers. Nastaran Mohit, Ezequiel Martinez, and others from the Laundry Workers Center join in activism for the workers, and Anthony Iluzzi comes to an agreement through negotiations as the new owner. ''The Hand That Feeds'' was produced by Jubilee Films in association with Latino Public Broadcasting, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and Vineyard Point Productions, with significant contributions provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The film was also supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, The Cinereach Project at
Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by actor Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and compo ...
, New York State Council on the Arts, Movement Resource Group, BRITDOC and Bertha BRITDOC Connect Fund, and New York Times Op-Docs. The film was a sponsored project of IFP and supported by
Tribeca Film Institute The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is a non-profit arts organization based in New York City, founded in 2001 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff following the September 11 attacks as a means to revitalize the arts community in lowe ...
, Good Pitch NY 2013, Sundance Creative Producing Lab and Summit 2013 and Independent Film Week Spotlight on Documentaries 2013. ''The Hand That Feeds'' premiered at the
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema founded by Nancy Buirski, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo editor of ''The New York Times'' and documentary filmma ...
on April 5, 2014, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature. It also won the Audience Award at DOC NYC. It screened at the 2014
AFI Docs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival was an American international film festival. Created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel, it was held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., fro ...
. On June 21, 2016, ''The Hand That Feeds'' aired as Episode 19 of Season 4 of America ReFramed on the World Channel. ''The Hand That Feeds'' received generally favorable reviews. It has a 93% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
based on 15 reviews. On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Odie Henderson, writing for
RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...
, said that "It has a beautiful, low-key approach that earns its cheers and tears without resorting to the manipulative or dramatic tricks of a typical feature film." Diana Clarke of ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...
'' praised the strength of Lopez as a character, noting that he is a “singularly tender, compelling, and articulate campaigner in this high-stakes struggle for justice", while Jen Chaney of ''The Dissolve'' commented on Lears and Blotnick's ability to build the documentary around an ensemble cast. However, Martin Tsai of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' considered the effort the squandering of a worthy subject. Tsai argued that the film "rarely substantiates the hardships workers and does not put their quality of life into any kind of statistical perspective", while also criticizing the film's "lighthearted digressions" and for allowing "white legal volunteers and
Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...
protesters to hijack the restaurant workers' story".


''Knock Down the House'' (2019)

''
Knock Down The House ''Knock Down the House'' is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Rachel Lears. It revolves around the 2018 congressional primary campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin, four progressiv ...
'' follows three congressional campaigns and one campaign for US Senate in the 2018 Democratic primaries.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the United States House of Representatives, US representative for New York's 14th congressional distric ...
challenges Rep.
Joe Crowley Joseph Crowley (born March 16, 1962) is an American former politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York's 14th congressional district from 1999 to 2019. He was defeated by Democratic primary challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in ...
in New York's 14th District,
Paula Swearengin Paula Jean Swearengin (born June 13, 1974) is an American activist and politician who was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2020 U.S. Senate election in West Virgi ...
challenges Senator
Joe Manchin Joseph Manchin III ( ; born August 24, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia from 2010 to 2025. He was West Virginia's only congressional Democrat until he registered as ...
in West Virginia, Amy Vilela challenges
Steven Horsford Steven Alexzander Horsford (born April 29, 1973) is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Nevada's 4th congressional district since 2019, previously holding the position from 2013 to 2015. He also served ...
in Nevada's 4th district, and
Cori Bush Cori Anika Bush (born July 21, 1976) is an American politician, nurse, pastor, and Black Lives Matter activist who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2021 to 2025. The district includes all of the ...
challenges
Lacy Clay William Lacy Clay Jr. (born July 27, 1956) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative from from 2001 to 2021. His congressional career ended after he lost in a Democratic primary to Cori Bush in 2020, after successfully ...
in Missouri's 1st District. The film shows these four women run their insurgent campaigns in attempts to take on establishment Democrats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became a political star as a result of the 2018 midterms. She ran as a challenger in a district that hadn't had a democratic primary in at least 20 years. Joe Crowley was known as an influential figure in the Democratic political machine in New York and in Washington. Ocasio-Cortez's energy and organizing effort led to a 57-43 upset victory on June 26, 2018, which nearly guaranteed a victory in the general election in the heavily Democratic district. The four women work in coordination with
Justice Democrats Justice Democrats (JD) is an American progressive political action committee and caucus founded on January 23, 2017, by two leaders of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political com ...
and
Brand New Congress Brand New Congress was an American political action committee with the mission to elect hundreds of new progressive congressional representatives in line with the campaign's political platform. Background Brand New Congress was a volunteer-le ...
, organizations that work to provide alternative paths to leadership so that working people have representation in Congress. Lears started working on a project about insurgent Democrats after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory. She reached out to Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats to find “charismatic female candidates who weren't career politicians, but had become newly galvanized to represent their communities”. Lears raised $28,111 for the project via
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
. Lears and Robin Blotnick used grant money and Kickstarter funds to follow each candidate for two weeks before their respective primary. Blotnick would edit the film while they were traveling and shooting in Las Vegas and St. Louis. ''Knock Down the House'' was supported by The Doc Society, IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Artemis Rising Foundation, Chicago Media Project, Wavelength Productions. Perspective Fund, Threshold Foundation's High Impact Documentary Funding Circle, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, Solidaire Action Fund, and Puffin Foundation. ''Knock Down the House'' is a sponsored project of IFP, with distribution advisory services from Cinetic Media. The film premiered at
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
and was released on May 1, 2019. At Sundance, it won the Festival Favorite Award. The film also screened at the True/False Film Fest, the Athena Film Festival, SXSW, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. ''Knock Down the House'' holds an approval rating of 99% based on 108 reviews on the review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
. On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has an average score of 85 of 100, based on 11 critic reviews, which indicates “universal acclaim”.
Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' praised the “excellent job of weaving in the stories of the three equally impressive candidates” and called Ocasio-Cortez "the unquestioned star of the stirring and inspirational documentary".
Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' noted that Lears "captured lightning in a bottle and now shows us the very genuine person behind the media firestorm". Kate Erbland of '' IndieWire'' praised the film's climactic moments, observing that the conclusion "has all the joy of anything written for the big screen, the kind of crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping, jaw-dropping final sequence of events that prove how much more compelling real-life can be than its fictionalized counterparts".


''To the End'' (2022)

'' To the End'' focuses on the effects of
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. It features Ocasio-Cortez, Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the
Sunrise Movement Sunrise Movement is an American 501(c)(4) political action organization that advocates political action on climate change alongside other progressive causes. When launched in 2017, the movement's goal was to elect proponents of renewable energ ...
, Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the
Justice Democrats Justice Democrats (JD) is an American progressive political action committee and caucus founded on January 23, 2017, by two leaders of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political com ...
, and
Rhiana Gunn-Wright Rhiana Gunn-Wright (born 1988) is the Climate Policy Director at the Roosevelt Institute. She has worked with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an author of the Green New Deal. Gunn-Wright was educated at Yale, before becoming a Rhodes Scholar at t ...
, the climate policy director for the
Roosevelt Institute The Roosevelt Institute is a liberal American think tank headquartered in New York City. History and overview The Roosevelt Institute was created in 1987 through the merger of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four ...
. The film debuted at the
2022 Sundance Film Festival The 2022 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20 to 30, 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic in Utah, COVID-19 pandemic protocol, it was initially intended to be an in-person/virtual hybrid festival, but on January 5, 2022, it was announced ...
and was presented at the
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
in June 2022.


References


External links


Official profile
at Jubilee Films * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lears, Rachel Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American documentary filmmakers Yale University alumni New York University alumni Sundance Film Festival award winners