(serious music)
(car honks)
- Yeah, Trump! - (beep) Trump!
- [ Hemal] My film "Battleground" examines
the ideological divisions of our present-day America.
It is based in Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania.
It is a tiny region, but it has an outsized influence
on our elections.
It voted for Obama twice, and then flipped to Trump in 2016.
That's why the pundits say as the Lehigh Valley goes,
so goes the nation.
(car beeps) - Hey, hey, hooray!
- [Hemal] I have been living in America for 15 years
in my ethnic enclave in New Jersey.
Trump's victory unsettled me.
I felt like my community came under attack.
(bells ring)
(crowd chants)
Almost every other weekend in my Hindu temple,
there were informal fundraisers
aimed to help families seeking refuge in bigger cities,
while closing their shops or motels
in small-town America, fearful of hate crimes.
(crowd sings)
That's why I decided to understand the root causes
of this hate and these divisions.
It is perhaps in the Lehigh Valley
that I would be able to understand the political fault lines
that divide us in America.
- It was such an impressive plant,
miles and miles along the river from the coke works
on down to the foundry, et cetera.
Almost everybody had somebody that worked in the steel.
It was a hardworking town that enjoyed the fruits
of its labor and it was all being taken away from them,
you know?
(serious music)
- [Hemal] Today, Bethlehem Steel is replaced
with an industrial-themed casino.
These steel stacks remind me of the cotton mills in Mumbai.
For over 100 years, these cotton mills
were a backbone of Mumbai's economic development.
Today, they are all shut down and turned into malls.
The people who worked at the cotton mills
were left to fend for themselves
without any meaningful employment.
(speaks foreign language)
- [Hemal] Soon, the void was filled
by the right-wing Hindu Nationalist Group
called (speaks foreign language),
who promised to get the workers their rights.
Many former mill workers whose parents were Communists
journeyed right into becoming Hindu nationalists.
My grandfather was a staunch Hindu nationalist
and he used to feel that the socialist party leaders
simply freeloaded on the working class to win elections,
but when push came to shove, they delivered us nothing.
- I think the level playing field that they claimed to seek
is best achieved by simply protecting
everybody's individual rights and limiting
the amount of power that the government has
to its vital, absolute necessary functions,
and that you stop trying to redistribute wealth
and you stop trying to force social justice
down their minds, 'cause there is no such thing
as the kind of social justice that they talk about.
- [Hemal] Despite Tom and I being ideologically
more or less in line, culturally we are opposites.
When I went to Republican events,
people were pleasant, but nevertheless,
I felt like an outsider.
In order to really gain the trust of the Tea Party,
I needed to find someone who they would open
their hearts to.
- (laughs) Trump forever!
Love him!
- [Hemal] I collaborated with filmmaker Jonah Markowitz.
- This is the background, and he talks
until eight o'clock or whatever.
- [Jonah] The Tea Party welcomed me with open arms
and hearts, but I must say, I was leery of their beliefs.
I was raised in a progressive, middle-class home
in Brooklyn, New York.
My mother, a lifetime feminist,
spent her career advocating for victims
of domestic and sexual abuse.
My father is in occupational health,
he fights for the safety of working-class men and women.
As staunch progressive, their advocacy seemed to be
woven into the fabric of progressive New York City politics.
- Say his name! - Joseph Santos!
- [Jonah] Greg Edwards seemed to be cut from the same cloth.
- We are demanding justice for Joseph
and healing for our entire community.
- [Jonah] It's not easy to address issues
of racial and social inequality head on
without alienating white Democrats.
He walked this line with effortless grace,
with passion and clarity.
When he spoke--
- The revolution always ain't televised.
- [Jonah] I was captivated.
- We are ready to win.
We're ready to win.
- [Hemal] I had seen this show before.
Greg Edwards reminded me of the cult-like figures
I saw in socialist India.
They promised us the moon, but delivered us nothing.
- All right, let's get to work, y'all.
- [Hemal] So even though I blended in
and felt accepted by Greg's campaign--
- How are you? - I'm good.
- [Hemal] I had my doubts about him.
- It's more than saying, "I'm a progressive,"
it's about your policy stance.
- It's just my father and mother
around their 40th anniversary.
- [Jonah] During the three plus years
we spent filming, I found myself caring deeply
for Tom Carroll.
- Here in the living room, so yeah, I'm a little crazy.
- [Jonah] He and I may never agree ideologically,
and that's okay.
More importantly, over time,
I began to recognize why he cares so deeply about his work.
Like Greg, he's a man of principles.
He wants to help his community feel seen.
He recognizes that they are in pain.
- We are in a battle to save our nation.
- [Jonah] Because the Tea Party sees a nation
that has left them behind.
- My house shall be a house
of prayer.
This brother got to go.
He gotta go.
- [Hemal] Over time, I saw integrity in Greg's work.
Greg was fighting for his people
and for people like me to get a seat at the table.
As Jonah and I continued to make the film,
it became clear that our worldviews converged
on what was truly important.
It began to dawn on us that Tom and Greg
actually had a fair amount in common.
- How are you doing?
- Good, how are you? - Good.
- [Hemal] It didn't take long for their worlds to collide.
- [Tom] The system is completely broken,
and it doesn't work for anybody.
- Right.
- There's an establishment donor class in both parties,
and although they have differences
in their political ideology,
they're not as different as they'd like to make it out,
because no matter what the economy's doing,
they don't lose their power and influence.
- Well, the only thing more powerful than red and blue
is green, and green-- - That's right.
- Doesn't care about red and blue.
Like it's not left and right, it's really top and bottom.
- Right.
As soon as we start dividing people in groups,
that's when we fall apart,
and it's, it's why George Washington warned
about political parties.
- And here we are. - Yeah.