ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt in “The Fight,” a new documentary following four teams of ACLU attorneys as they battle the Trump administration’s attempts to change laws on gender equality, immigration, abortion rights and the Census. Magnolia Pictures

I’m angry. I’m tired. I feel sick. 

So I’m recommending a movie to you. 

“The Fight” is streaming as part of the Portland Museum of Art’s PMA Films “virtual video store.” Since PMA Films is remaining responsibly shuttered while nature and medical science hash this whole pandemic thing out, renting movies online through the Portland Museum of Art website is a tangible and effective way to make sure some revenue makes its way into the coffers of one of Portland’s most essential indie movie venues. Plus, you get to see a movie. It’s the definition of a win-win. 

The subjects of the documentary “The Fight” could use a win-win. Focusing on a handful of lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, the film opens with the swearing-in of the current president of these United States, announcing before the opening credits even finish that ACLU lawyers and lovers of this gossamer-delicate experiment in just and fair governance are in for the fight of their lives. 

Warning before we go any further: Viewers of “The Fight” will have to listen to President Trump’s voice. A lot. 

The 96-minute documentary is admirable in aim and scope, spotlighting four central civil rights cases taken up by the ACLU on behalf of abortion rights, voting rights, immigration rights and LGBTQ rights. If you’ll notice a theme, those are things that the present administration immediately attacked upon taking power. Often via Trump’s Twitter account, because that’s where we are right now. More admirable from a filmmaking point of view is how directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres manage to make what could have a been one long scream of outrage and gut-churning frustration into a complex and compelling underdog story right out of Hollywood. Even though real life rarely wraps things up with the good guys unequivocally triumphant. 

The lawyers of the ACLU are presented in intimately human terms, their passionate struggles to beat back governmental encroachment on individual liberties portrayed as less quixotic than dedicatedly matter-of-fact. We see immigration specialist Lee Gelernt – the most senior of the bunch – wrestling with phone chargers in a Starbucks so he can find out if his arguments against the Trump administration’s child separation policy have been upheld. Josh Block is seen struggling with his rickety standing desk and a balky dictation program (his final Supreme Court argument did not, in fact, mention Ben Affleck), while colleague Chase Strangio wrangles weekend phone calls with people affected by Trump’s transgender military ban while his rambunctious child causes little-kid chaos. 

Brigitte Amiri, the ACLU attorney who heads the organization’s Reproductive Freedom Project, was initially hesitant to be featured in the film. Magnolia Pictures

We see abortion rights lawyer Brigitte Amiri hopping planes, taxis and subways as she races the clock on behalf of a young asylum-seeker whose decision to seek an abortion is being blocked on transparently unconstitutional grounds. And, in one truly exuberant moment late in the film, voting rights lawyer Dale Ho speeding from despair to unexpected, cathartic joy when a complicatedly written Supreme Court decision knocks down the administration’s assault on the Census. One might ask why any functioning democracy that purports to honor civil rights needs an overworked, underfunded private organization to sprint from courthouse to courthouse putting out fires, but that is the nature of our imperfect union. 

But “The Fight” is about the fight, and not all fights are won, no matter how just the cause. The film fights its own battle against potentially overwhelming viewers with facts, history and legalese, emerging more often than not as a responsibly entertaining overview of the ACLU and its mission – and necessity. As Ho puts it when ruminating upon stepping down from his taxing job, he remembers the inauguration of Donald Trump and asks resignedly, “If I’m not going to be a civil rights lawyer right now, in this moment, when?” 

ACLU attorney Dale Ho says he was “profoundly moved” by the work of his colleagues as shown in “The Fight.” Magnolia Pictures

The film also doesn’t shy away from the ACLU’s blanket approach to free speech litigation – even when the speech they’re working to protect is reprehensible. A sequence showing the film’s subjects listening to and reading the hateful messages they receive daily is hard to stomach. But interviews show how internal arguments about the group’s representation of the white supremacists (some of whom Trump infamously described as “very fine people”) who marched on Charlottesville persist even now, with one senior lawyer explaining – with infuriating logic – that, since the Trump administration is set on suppressing voices of those it disagrees with, it’s vital to fight for everyone’s right not to be silenced. Yes, even Nazis. (No doubt the ACLU could have done without a torch-wielding white supremacist’s effusive thanks for allowing their hate rally, but that’s the job.)  

Indeed. And if it’s no spoiler to reveal that that event – among so, so many – sent the ACLU (and this reviewer) into red alert when it comes to beating back authoritarianism and bigotry, “The Fight” – for all its ups and downs – is an energizing watch. Oh, and infuriating. And heartbreaking. When the ever-rumpled Gelernt steps aside to watch the tearful reunion of a mother and the 7-year-old daughter she’s been forcefully separated from for five months, the film hardly lets the moment pass without reminding us there are some 1,300 others still waiting for someone to take up their case. 

Because, for every individual battle the ACLU wins, the fight continues. 

I’m tired. I’m angry. I feel sick. It’s time to get to work. 

“The Fight” is streaming through PMA Films. It’s 96 minutes, it costs $12 for a three-day rental, and part of the proceeds go to the PMA. Also, the rental comes with a post-film discussion with the film’s subjects, moderated by Kerry Washington, a producer of the film. 

Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and cat.