Clarissa’s Battle

Clarissa’s Battle also screens digitally nationwide between May 20 – 26 on HRWFF’s digital streaming platform. Watch here.

Q&A with Director Tamara Perkins, Producer & Editor Sara Maamouri, Film Participant Clarissa Doutherd, HRW Senior Researcher and Advocate on Poverty and Inequality Lena Simet. Moderator Tanya Denise Fields, Executive Director & Founder, The Black Feminist Project.

Single mother and organizer Clarissa Doutherd is building a powerful coalition of parents. They’re fighting for child care and early education funds, desperately needed by low-and middle-income parents and children across the United States. Driven by her own experience losing child care and becoming unhoused with her infant son, Xavier, she seems to be everywhere at once – at hearings, election rooms, and rallies from Oakland, California to Washington, DC. But juggling this work with raising her son pushes Clarissa into a personal health crisis far too common among stressed, working mothers, especially women of color. When the lockdown pushes more families into desperate circumstances, Clarissa and her coalition redouble their efforts, with the stakes higher than ever. Clarissa’s Battle offers an insight into an erupting movement, as communities across the country follow Clarissa’s successes, setbacks and indomitable resilience.

“When we build from the ground up, from the grassroots up, when we include seniors, when we include monolingual Spanish speakers, when we include everybody from the community to come and campaign and fight for justice for our children, then that’s how we win.” —Clarissa Doutherd, Film Participant, Clarissa’s Battle