Our take
Alexandra, daughter of Nancy Pelosi, has been working as an documentary filmmaker for HBO for more than 20 years now and the theme of her newest work does not surprise. Turning the camera on several Jan Sixers, she asks them about that day, and whether their belief in Trump and the conservatives has changed following their jail time. Her way of being in the film, though, is very present: physically and with her voice. Pelosi places herself not just as an interviewer, but as an interlocutor, probing their statements and more often than not exclaiming "You still believe in X?!" in one way or another. The Insurrectionist Next Door is colloquial, it's comedic tragedy with a hope to bridge the gap between two opposing political beliefs: a synecdoche for America as a whole.
Synopsis
Alexandra Pelosi turns her camera on some of the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Through a series of candid interviews conducted over the last two years, Pelosi talks to several individuals charged with crimes for their participation in the unprecedented events of the day.
Storyline
Alexandra Pelosi interviews several individuals charged for storming the Capitol on January 6th 2021.
TLDR
What if... conservatives were actually nice people?
What stands out
Even though the documentary includes a lot of found footage (Snapchat videos, news footage, livestreams), what's entirely new is precisely the filmed interviews. Pelosi is invited to these people's homes (or calls them on the phone when they're in jail) and is usually there when the verdict on their charges drops. She captures some special moments of male vulnerability, where the interviewees admit the difficulties in their own life that led them to align conservative to the point of civil disobedience. In these conversations, Pelosi doesn't conceal her opposite political position in the slightest, but her candor, once met by the interviewees with calm explanations and readiness for dialogue, is probably responsible for the weird wholesomeness of this documentary. In a rather touching scene, she even shares cake with one of the men involved, cakes they both made in his kitchen during filming: baking is the new making peace.