Since her victory last summer over powerful Democratic Party incumbent Joe Crowley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been subject to relentless attacks from the right and center. She’s also become a hero to both the progressive left — which recognizes the democratic socialist congresswoman as a political challenger to the ruling elite — and many mainstream liberals captivated by her charisma and empowering personal story. Love her or hate her, nobody can deny that she’s emerged a singular force in American politics.

Rachel Lears’ new documentary film Knock Down the House winds back the clock, opening on a scene of Ocasio-Cortez midway through her congressional run, applying makeup at a bathroom mirror. She wonders aloud, “How do you prepare for something you don’t know is coming?”

The film follows four progressive women who ran primary campaigns against established centrist Democrats in the 2018 congressional midterms: Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Amy Vilela in Nevada, Cori Bush in Missouri, and Paula Jean Swearengin in West Virginia. None of them knew for certain what their chances were or the extent of the difficulty they would face. But they all knew one thing: the time had come for people like themselves — ordinary working-class people from diverse backgrounds — to vie for state power.