Review: 'Represent' profiles three women running for office, spotlighting the people part of politics

The documentary “Represent” is a friendly reminder, one we need now more than ever, that politics is supposed to be about people — the ones running for office, and the ones who vote for them.

Filmmaker Hillary Bachelder — who directed, shot and edited this PBS-backed documentary — follows the fortunes of three women running for office in the Midwest in 2017 and 2018. They are:

 • Myya Jones, a 22-year-old Black activist who in 2017 started a long-shot campaign to be mayor of Detroit, with the goal of shifting city funds to poverty-stricken African American neighborhoods.

 • Julie Cho, a Korean immigrant in Evanston, Ill., running for her local Illinois state house seat, as a Republican in a solidly Democratic district, on a platform against gerrymandering.

 • Bryn Bird, a progressive policy wonk and produce farmer in rural Ohio, running against the conservative establishment to fill one of the three seats on the Granville Township Board of Trustees.

Bachelder doesn’t spend too much time on the candidates’ policy stances, Instead following the candidates as they try to connect with the people they hope will vote for them. There’s a lot of pounding the pavement, knocking on doors and shaking hands (in the pre-COVID days). There are also living-room fund-raisers, and state party conventions where they try to stand out in a crowd.

Bachelder’s approach is gentle and even-handed, avoiding the vitriol of internet trolls and national party squabbles. Much of the backlash these three women feel is of the quieter variety, whether it’s Bird coming to understand the old-boy network in her town or Jones trying to cut through the chatter of the state convention. Cho faces the loneliest road in some ways, rejected in crowds when she says she’s a Republican while also being abandoned by her state’s GOP apparatus. 

Like any good documentarian, Bachelder shows us the people behind the process, and lets us get to know and like them. By the end of “Represent,” these women may not have earned your vote, but they will have earned your respect.

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‘Represent’

★★★

Available Friday, August 14, in the Salt Lake Film Society’s “virtual cinema.” Not rated, but probably PG for mature themes. Running time: 93 minutes.