Review by Dennis D. McDonald

This film is the May 2022 monthly film of the 2022 Alexandria Film Festival. The author of this review is a volunteer with the Festival.

Running With My Girls is a feature length documentary about a group of progressives and women of color running in recent Denver, Colorado Mayoral and City Council elections.

The filmmaker makes no bones about her sympathy for the progressives who are running against what they repeatedly characterize as an entrenched power structure. This is is both a strength and weakness for this engrossing film.

On the one hand, we get an up close and gritty view of the women who are running, why they are running, and the abundance of time, energy, and money they must devote to their campaigns.

On the other hand, we don’t really get a complete picture of the issues at play or of these candidates’ opponents; that may be the price paid for tracking multiple campaigns.

What does come across loud and clear is that Denver’s image as a “progressive” city may be somewhat of an illusion, perhaps derived from its having a black mayor. Also loud and clear — and these factors will be important regardless of the political sympathies of this film’s viewers — are the importance of money; incumbents’ advantages in fundraising; the value of negative campaigning; and all the exhausting hard work and sacrifice that go into campaigning, especially when a candidate is running as an underdog.

In summary, as one person’s perspective on campaigning this is an incredibly valuable documentary. In attempting to cover multiple canddiates and races key issues tend to be lost until the very end when we see the ballot results.

But that may be the point. Bottom line: If you are interested in local campaigning, this film could be a real eye opener.

Review copyright 2022 by Dennis D. McDonald. Dennis is an independent management consultant in Alexandria Virginia. He provides proposal development and writing support to DC area contractors. For the past 6 years he has also been a volunteer with the Alexandria Film Festival and has supported the festival’s film selection, email management, newsletter production, grant applications, and event photography. Contact him at ddmcd@ddmcd.com. His web site is located at www.ddmcd.com.