State of Firsts Review: On the Campaign Trail with Sarah McBride

State of Firsts
(USA, 95 min.)
Dir. Chase Joynt
Prod. Jenna M. Kelly, Justin Lacob

 

Towards the end of State of Firsts, American Congresswoman Sarah McBride invites the camera into her new office after moving in. The film offers glimpses of photos and trinkets with which the Congresswoman from Delaware personalizes the space. The image cuts to a close-up of a card made from blue construction paper. On it, what appears to be a child’s handwriting scrawls a simple but poignant message: “Thank you for existing.”

With McBride’s successful bid for a seat in Congress, she scores an historic first at a moment when simply existing as a visible transperson is more of a political act than ever in the U.S.A. She’s the first transwoman elected to Congress, but as she emphasizes repeatedly on the campaign trail, she doesn’t aim to put her identity on the ballot. However, as director Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes, No Ordinary Man) follows McBride over several fateful months, her identity and her existence become increasingly politicized as the Republican Party weaponizes the culture wars by putting transgender rights in the spotlight to stir the pot and polarise voters.

Joynt’s film echoes the 2019 right-person, right-moment doc Knock Down the House, which followed several upstart candidates including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (AOC makes an appearance in this documentary, and her gift for soundbites hasn’t sagged a bit.) While Knock Down the House follows four candidates in pivotal campaigns, State of Firsts’ solo mission with McBride effectively shares with audiences both the significance and complexity of being the only person in the room and accepting the task of representation on multiple fronts.

McBride, like AOC, provides a great set of eyes through which to see the U.S.A. during this tense political moment. She’s personable, insightful, bold, and very funny. She displays a thick skin and an ability to shake things off, but she’s also vulnerable and introspective—traits that offer the documentary dramatic levels, but also avenues to extend the conversation beyond her personal experience and history. Cinematographer Melissa Langer captures McBride through intimate fly-on-the-wall footage that invites audiences to observe the intersection of personal, public, and political lives.

The film finds an especially touching thread with McBride’s perspectives about her late husband, Andrew. McBride tells how her passion for fighting for families and health care draws inspiration from Andrew’s work for LGBTQ health, as well as her experience serving as his caregiver when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died at 28 years old, just four days after he and McBride married. His memory keeps her grounded and offers an accessible, personable reminder that politicians are human, just as the many scenes of McBride with her family offer counterpoints to the right-wing soundbites about transpeople corrupting the family unit. These scenes of family love carry into the political arena as McBride shares her stories as inspiration for her work.

State of Firsts joins McBride as she knocks on doors in her Delaware district. She’s keen to hear her constituents’ concerns and speak to them. McBride tells Joynt that running for office is like a marathon interview process in which every single person she encounters basically serves on the hiring committee. That seems like an accurate statement given the encounters that Joynt captures. McBride’s constituents are engaged and eager to speak on multiple issues. These “interview” sessions range from a house call in which the party answering the door expresses concerns that McBride would more vocally call for a ceasefire in Gaza (McBride tells the constituent, and the journalist shadowing her, that she’s been vocal in her support for bi-lateral resolution) to round-table conversations with multiple parties about gun violence and systemic inequity.

In these scenes, her identity as a transwoman doesn’t seem to be a factor with her constituents, although many people express support. Instead, they accept her credentials and instead test her perspectives and policies. Put another way, for Delawareans, McBride’s ability to best serve her riding is what’s on the ballot; not her existence as a transwoman.

However, the film observes as the Republican Party’s campaign leans hard into trans rights to mobilize conservative voters. McBride repeatedly finds herself in the spotlight as a Democratic voice to counter the misinformation and to temper heated rhetoric. Even when she’s elected, trans rights become a lightning rod issue in the Capitol. It begins with frequent misgendering and dead-naming, and escalates when South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace calls for people in the building to use the washrooms that correspond with their gender assigned at birth. When McBride decides to be the bigger person and comply (with noted disapproval), even her supporters express disappointment, especially since she went viral years earlier for posting a selfie in a women’s washroom amid another bathroom ban.

State of Firsts observes as McBride articulates what it means to trade hats politically. Her story charts a journey from activist to elected official, and she insists that there are different degrees of acceptable behaviour and different levels of action. She can’t picket and also make policy, so to speak.

However, this thread of the film brings more voices of transpeople into the fold. Joynt inserts viral videos from the next generation of activists as they revolt against the bathroom ban. Instagram Reels and TikTok Videos see protesters dancing in Capitol Hill bathrooms that don’t correspond to their assigned genders. Confessional videos from social media users express frustration with McBride’s reflection of Establishment politics, while others ask for grace and appreciate the bind she’s in. These stories come together with McBride’s own to convey the weight of being the first when no one person can fully reflect the multiplicity of experiences entailed in identities.

In following McBride’s campaign, Joynt confidently transitions from the highly stylised modes of his previous works. A vérité doc like State of Firsts marks a radical departure from films like Framing Agnes, No Ordinary Man, and The Nest that mix traditional documentary elements with drama and performance to question fissures in recorded history, among other themes. However, there’s continuity between the films as McBride’s “first-ness” essentially allows Joynt to be a storyteller of record for a chapter of trans history. There’s no need for actors here since McBride plays the lead in her own story. Another first.

State of Firsts screens at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is now on the festival circuit.

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