Seven days after Trump’s inauguration, his Muslim ban was a stunning assault on civil liberties — but it was even more extraordinary to watch ACLU lawyers fight back. Just thirty hours after the order was signed, attorneys emerged from a Brooklyn courthouse with fists raised high, triumphant at the court’s first check on the president’s power.
The Trump administration has since moved to expel transgender soldiers from the military, roll back voting rights, separate migrant children from their parents, block abortion access for undocumented teens, and reinstate the Muslim ban. But at each affront, an ACLU lawyer is fighting back. In this modern-day David vs Goliath story, we’ll watch these self-described “freedom nerds” struggle to stop an unpredictable adversary with unlimited resources.
The lawyers of the ACLU are now at the epicenter of the battle to constrain President Trump’s anti-constitutional impulses — even while protecting the most controversial free speech rights of his supporters. The Fight is the inside story of the human struggle at this moment of national crisis.
Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres previously collaborated on the documentary Weiner, a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner and BAFTA Award nominee that was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Steinberg and Kriegman were co-directors/producers (nominated for a DGA Award), and Despres was the editor and writer. Together, they co-directed and executive produced the critically acclaimed Showtime docuseries Couples Therapy. Steinberg and Kriegman made Variety’s 2016 list of "top ten documakers to watch." Steinberg also directed the acclaimed feature documentary The Trial of Saddam Hussein (PBS). Despres’s other editing credits include BAFTA Award nominee Blackfish and Cannes Film Festival selection Red Army. He is a two-time nominee for a documentary American Cinema Editors Award.