Ocasio-Cortez Campaign Film Draws Top Dollar From Netflix
The picture won the Festival Favorite Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
(Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. acquired rights to the award-winning documentary “Knock Down the House,” about the election campaigns of U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three other women from the Democratic Party, reportedly paying the most ever for such a film.
The picture, which originally was funded by a Kickstarter campaign online, won the Festival Favorite Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The Los Gatos, California-based streaming giant announced the deal in a statement Thursday. Ocasio-Cortez was the only winner among the four underdog candidates portrayed in the film.
Politics is an important source of content for Netflix. Barack and Michelle Obama struck a multiyear deal to create programming for the service. The video service is also home to “Get Me Roger Stone,” about the longtime lobbyist and consultant to Donald Trump in 2016.
“Knock Down the House” follows the grassroots campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearengin and Cori Bush. Their campaigns focused on income inequality, health care, police violence and the environment.
Ocasio-Cortez was set to attend a screening of “Knock Down the House” at Sundance, but couldn’t due to the government shutdown. She appeared instead via Skype.
The studio paid $10 million for the movie, estimated to be the most ever for a documentary, according to industry website Deadline.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anousha Sakoui in Los Angeles at asakoui@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum
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