Opening Scene
The opening scene of the film—the very first shots with the very first words of dialogue—show Ocasio-Cortez applying makeup. The film quite literally takes less than five seconds to put into an overpowering visual image the difference between female and male politicians (excepting professional Fox News guest Matt Gaetz) not just in the second decade of the 21st century, but throughout history and, probably, decades if not centuries into the future.
Militarized Police
The imagery of police responding to the outrage of the murder of Michael Brown by showing up in literal army tanks while dressed head to toe in protective gear far more appropriate to engaging troops in Afghanistan makes for some of the powerful imagery in the film. The footage of peaceful protesters in the streets being met with such highly inappropriate high-powered authoritarian oppressive resistance instantly makes the case for the necessity for more progressive politicians in Congress.
U.S. Capitol
In light of the January 6, 2021 insurrection by Trump supporters who stormed the building, attacked law enforcement officers, defecated on floors, smashed windows, stole personal and government items, waved a traitor’s flag, trespassed and attempted to subvert and overthrow the United States government while yelling “this is our house now!”, the serene imagery of AOC sitting in front of an almost otherwise empty U.S. Capitol takes on new significance and meaning. Her recollection of a trip with her father to Washington, D.C. as he points out the landmarks and tells his young daughter “This all belongs to us” instantly freezes into a moment of recognition the difference in attitude between America’s two political parties in the aftermath of four years of Donald Trump in the White House.
AOC’s Home Movies
The purpose of the imagery presented in home family video footage AOC when she was just a kid is both subtle and flagrant. The flagrant part is to present the way she and her family physically look as being more seamlessly integrated into population of the congressional district in which she is running: she looks like everybody else we’ve seen. The subtle part is the imagery which bookends that home video footage, both of which present—without drawing undo attention to it—the political power elite of the very same district who are older affluent white males who by contrast actually look absurdly out of place.
