“Speaking Truth to Power: Barbara Lee” (2020) appears on IMDb as “Truth to Power,” but someone looking at the cover of the DVD could perceive the title as “Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power,” which is my preference and how my library listed it in their online catalogue. Abby Ginzberg’s most recent documentary focuses on U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, who serves California’s 13th congressional district and cast the lone vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, a formerly popular Congressional broad, jingoistic response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. After witnessing US troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2021, her stance makes Rep. Lee seem prophetic and credible even to a skeptical viewer.
“Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power” follows Rep. Lee through her professional and personal life and interviews friends, family and colleagues from both sides of the aisles to create a biography about a down to earth, dynamic woman who finds inspiration for legislation through her own struggles as a black woman born in the segregated South and a single mother escaping abusive relationships. Unlike drawbridge Republicans, Rep. Lee wants to make sure that others in similar situations can benefit from the same government aid that helped her and is depicted as fighting for all underdogs nationally and globally. In one scene, a surreal show of grace, Rep Lee visits a theater that she had never entered before because she was not allowed as a black person. If I was the tour guide, I would have wanted to sink under the stage.
As a viewer, it is important not to conflate Rep. Lee’s story with a rubber stamp approval of the film. While “Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power” is accurately classified as a biographical documentary, watching it during the Biden administration made me view it differently than I would have if we were still in the Presidon’t term. Is it propaganda even if I agree with it? I do not make false equivalencies such as both parties are the same. At this point, one is demonstrably worse than the other. I have voted Democrat since Hurricane Katrina. While I enjoyed the documentary and seem to cosign everything that Rep Lee stands for, I wish that Ginzberg documented how Rep. Lee responds when a Democrat is in power and perpetuates systematic injustice. I do not think that Democrats believe in a show of unity at any cost. Democrats will occasionally throw a leader under the bus for sexual misconduct, but on issues of immigration and foreign policy, other than rhetoric, while Democrats deplore the status quo on the record and try to legislatively change it, they still act similarly to their Republican counterparts in the executive branch. In Rep. Lee’s case, I am particularly focused on the issue of immigration.
“Speaking Truth to Power: Barbara Lee” paints Presidon’t immigrations policies as inhumane, which I agree, and frames the Democrats as symbolized by Rep. Lee and her district as the “resistance,” which while accurate at the time, is an interesting use of the word considering that she does hold open authority. The film’s footage was shot early during Presidon’t’s term, soon after the first hundred days, through Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration. Rep. Lee appropriately drew parallels between the policy to separate undocumented immigrant children from parents and slavery. While I am sure that her stance does not change, is her approach behind closed doors when a Democrat holds the executive branch just as vocal and on the record as when a Republican holds the office? Does she want to preserve the image of party unity or her own beliefs?
“Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power” does explore how Rep. Lee has acted in the past when she disagreed with Democratic positions. It recalls her early apolitical days when she did not vote and was unwilling to campaign for a Democratic Presidential candidate for a class until Rep. Lee met Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who won her over. Rep. Lee also recounts contemplating voting against her own AIDS legislation because of all the amendments, but voted in favor of it. So the film gives us a spectrum of possibilities of how Rep Lee would respond if faced with opposing a Democrat—she won’t vote in their favor, but will she be as vocal in calling them out? The film refrains from explicitly addressing this issue and creates an appearance of Democrats as good because of its association with Rep. Lee instead of making a more nuanced film. It is possible that even though the film was released late 2021, it was complete long before it was in theaters, and filmmakers could argue that no such disagreements arose during the making of this film. There was at least one notable moment.
I am specifically referring to Vice President Harris’ June 8th speech in Guatemala to dissuade illegal immigration, “Do not come.” Two years earlier, on June 29, 2018 in Guatemala, Vice President Pence said, “If you want to come to the Unites States, come legally, or don’t come at all.” When you become Vice President, do they just hand this speech at the door? It is not inherently controversial to advise people against breaking the law, especially if you are part of the government. Due to the nature of the United States, whoever holds office inherits and is somewhat complicit to all the wrong done before unless those office holders take affirmative steps to call out and reverse the framework already in place. It takes more momentum to change than maintain a system. Still it is one thing to deplore prior practices, but the optics of similarities is hard to deny. It creates an impression that nothing has changed. Are there still camps with kids?
This association could have been avoided if the film stuck to the House of Representatives instead of ambling over to the Senate. It would have been consistent with the overall film, which restricts itself to that branch, and the legislation started there. It does not follow Rep Lee’s work through the Senate to see if it is successful, particularly her efforts to revoke the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. It also gives the documentary a chance to take a jab at Vice President Pence’s work when he was a congressman. By straying from its original focus, Ginzburg opens an otherwise riveting and inspirational biography to criticism.
Instead “Speaking Truth to Power: Barbara Lee” includes multiple clips of Rep. Lee proudly associating with Vice President Harris, which makes sense. They come from the same state, but it omits any explicit relationship between Rep. Lee and Rep. Maxine Waters so while understandable, it was not necessary. The Vice-Presidential reference continues the film’s theme of Rep. Lee’s legacy of influence on other legislators and now the executive branch. So Vice President Harris gets credibility by association, but does the reverse happen? Does Rep. Lee get Vice President Harris’ negative press as well?
Rep. Lee probably should not, and I am reiterating that my criticism of “Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power” is not a criticism of the titular congresswoman. She has called out Biden on immigration and explicitly on the racial implications of these policies, but the documentary, though a deserved biography, is more reticent than its subject.
