USA / 2004 / 76mins / Documentary / English

Recalling a watershed event in US politics, this compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first to seek nomination for the highest office in the land.

Following Chisholm from her own announcement of her candidacy through her historic speech in Miami at the Democratic National Convention, the story is a fight for inclusion. Shunned by the political establishment and the media, this longtime champion of marginalized Americans asked for support from people of color, women, gays, and young people newly empowered to vote at the age of 18. Chisholm's bid for an equal place on the presidential dais generated strong, even racist opposition. Yet her challenge to the status quo and her message about exercising the right to vote struck many as progressive and positive. Period footage and music, interviews with supporters, opponents, observers, and Chisholm's own commentary all illuminate her groundbreaking initiative, as well as political and social currents still very much alive today.

Shola Lynch

Born in 1969 in Austin, Texas, and a child actress on Sesame Street, Shola Lynch studied Liberal Arts at the University of Texas. She has a master’s degree in American History from the University of California, Riverside, and was for 15 years a track athlete. She became a protégée of documentarist Ken Burns on Frank Lloyd Wright and the TV series Jazz, then worked with HBO Sports on Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, and with Roja Productions on the Matters of Race series. She directed her feature documentary debut Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed in 2004. The second film she directed, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2006), profiled political activist, philosopher, academic, and author, Angela Davis. The film received honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival and won Best Theatrical Documentary at the 2014 NAACP Image Awards. Lynch became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016. She received a Creative Capital grant in 2015 to sponsor the research and production of her next film, tentatively called The Outlaw. Since 2013, Lynch has worked with the New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as the Curator of the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division. Learn More