DC4REEL

The First Step

BRANDON KRAMER
USA, 2021
89 minutes, Color
Official website

In Person: director Brandon Kramer and producer Lance Kramer

D.C.-based City of Trees director Brandon Kramer returns to FilmFest DC with another insightful documentary, this time following activist Van Jones on his quest to get prison reform legislation passed. The journey goes from inside the White House and Congress to the homeless camps and battered streets of Los Angeles and West Virginia as Jones tries "bringing people together to help people at the very bottom." His twin sister tells him, "People have always thought that you were tilting at windmills." Jones takes considerable heat, especially from those in the Black community who feel betrayed and say that Jones is legitimizing the Trump Administration, whose support is needed to pass the First Step bill. "You can't fight an opponent you don't understand," counters Jones, who is shown at conservative rallies, at town hall meetings, and inside prisons. The intimate cinematography captures the great perseverance required to create change.—Dave Nuttycombe