‘TEXAS, USA’ & the Potential for Cinema Influence in Modern Politics
By now, the average American has had at least one sleepless night due to the current trajectory of the 2024 presidential election. After the whirlwind of an election in 2020 and even more so in 2016, there is a cacophony of emotions that arise at the thought of what the next year will look like—and subsequently the next four years after.
There are several states garnering attention in this upcoming election that are typically easy bets in the past as to how they will vote. This upcoming election, however, is a completely different beast that might rattle and shake the typical traditions of various states.
This speaks to the new landscape we have in terms of voting. There’s a whole new level of media literacy we hold ourselves to nowadays that allows us to utilize new mediums as resources to further educate ourselves before voting. One such medium is film, as we have seen a proliferation of documentaries around the time of the 2020 presidential election. While this large trend of political documentaries stemmed out of the 2016 election motivating many filmmakers, there was a new interest in viewership of these documentaries in 2020 due to people searching for new resources to stay up-to-date on politics. These documentaries broke down many complex topics relevant to modern politics that were inevitably hard to understand using traditional media outlets. Not to mention many of them were made easily accessible across various streaming services during the pandemic.
Documentaries like Knock Down the House (2019) and American Factory (2019) were at the forefront of this trend, with many others following suit. Keeping this in mind, this sets us up for a magnificent new wave of these documentaries for the 2024 election. Some documentaries in the past five years that stuck with me were ones covering similar topics that were fully explored in a brand-new documentary that arrived to streaming October 6, 2023, TEXAS, USA.
Written and Directed by Andrew Morgan, produced by Sarah Labowitz and Zach Morgan, and with Helen Cassell serving as director of photography—this documentary takes on conversations lightly grazed on in previous films over the past five years like Boys State (2020) and Running With Beto (2019). Understandably, there was only a quick focus to Texas as a landscape in these documentaries.
“And very quickly the story that got so inspiring was not the story of what was taking place and what was taken away—you know, the historic struggle. It was the story of the folks who were fighting back against that,” said Morgan after a Q&A at the New York City premiere of the film.
Many states are currently finding themselves in more of a swing state space than ever for this next election, particularly states that have previously been more right-leaning. In the documentary, it is explained that if Texas were to go blue in this next election, there would be no chance of a Republican candidate becoming president. There are several states in our electoral college system that both Republican and Democratic parties rely on in order to stand a chance in the election overall. For Democrats, it is usually California. For Republicans, however, they need Texas in order to win.
The film focuses in on the advocates of public figures who are helping the blue wave hitting Texas right now take shape. Similar to documentaries like Knock Down The House (2019), the entire film is filled with a sense of hope that attitudes towards various issues across the state will change.
“When we change Texas, we will change this country. When we change this country, this world will be a different place” proclaimed Tory Gavito (political strategist and founder of Way to Win), featured in the documentary, after discussing how the landscape of Texas is a beautiful projection on the state of our country as a whole.
I, for one, am incredibly excited to see the influence this film and many other political documentaries will have on this upcoming election. This year it is so important to get educated on topics and bring awareness to circumstances that we as individuals might not fully understand the scope of yet. TEXAS, USA does a phenomenal job at touching on every major topic up for discussion by showing the people at the picket lines fighting for change. From issues concerning trans and LGBTQ+ rights to awareness of voter registration for various communities, and even discussions around second amendment rights, abortion, and immigration; there are many topics that are vital to have an understanding of for this next voting year.
Make sure to keep your eyes out for resources like this one (available to stream. You can find a link to the trailer here) when scrolling through your social media feeds or streaming services. You might learn some vital information to help you shape your opinions and even help others around you do the same!
