It Takes People (to get things done)

Director’s Statement

This film is a chapter from a story that many good ol’ boys in Missouri have feared for years—the “trailer trash” powerhouse called Robin Acree. The welfare mom turned lobbying queen has been called the most powerful woman in the State even though she’s never held elected office or any other professional position.

It Takes People is both an original character profile of Acree and a fast-paced campaign documentary about grassroots leadership and power, not to mention the other central themes: the U.S. health care crisis; poverty and social class; and the corruption of political processes by money.

I have attempted to capture the audacity, charisma and dynamism of Acree and her friends during their 16-week sprint to get enough signatures to put their health care initiative on the Missouri ballot for the 2006 Election. The energy they bring to the screen is extraordinary, and a tribute both to Acree’s leadership and the significance of the American populism that is emerging in the new century.

Acree and her co-stars are more accessible than most documentary subjects. (Except for being located in rural Missouri.) They are the message they proclaim and their genuine and grounded nature makes even political confrontation a good ol' time. Acree is full of fun and mischief, yet fierce and unrelenting—a genuine Mid West - Mid South character in a film akin to Erin Brockovich meets Street Fight in the Great Plains and the Ozarks. Above all, she is raw Americana in its angriest form—crass, rude and fantastically inspiring.

It Takes People to Get Things Done is a provocative statement as well as title. Some of the questions the film brings up inadvertently are:

Why is there such a huge resource gap between average Americans and

the economic and political institutions of our time?

How close are we to a national tipping point where the American poor and

middle class will rise up together to take what they need?

When will we see a shift in the trend of rising health care prices and other

basic needs?

What will be the effect of a new presidential administration?

I want this film to turn the spotlight on populist American politics and away from the ideological polarization that major television networks feed on. More complex portraits of the American political landscape will challenge the media-driven illusion that the nation is essentially and cleanly divided into Red and Blue camps.

D.J. Espinosa

May 2007