The historic numbers of women running for and getting elected to public office has helped turn the tide. And as 2020’s numbers continue to climb past 2018’s, the trend shows no signs of slowing. Along with new subjects, these directors are taking on a new style of filmmaking, humanizing women candidates with intimate looks at their lives in a departure from the stiffer bird’s-eye views of the past. In Surge, Underwood is clearly the star, and the smallest details endear her to us: her small pink Gucci purse paired with her green coat (Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority colors), the Airstream trailer she campaigns out of during the homestretch, the paper plate of crudités she’s eating on the run when her staff informs her that she has indeed won her race.
For the two-part PBS series And She Could Be Next, directors Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia put together a team composed entirely of women of color both in front of and behind the camera. Executive produced by Ava DuVernay and…
