WATCH TRAILER

The Inquisitor

A film by Angela Tucker

United States | 2025 | 98 minutes | English | Order No. W251321

In 1972, Barbara Jordan became the first Southern Black woman to join Congress. THE INQUISITOR chronicles Representative Jordan’s meteoric rise offering a blueprint for uniting a divided America through a turbulent political era.

Host a screening

SYNOPSIS

As a young girl in Houston’s Fifth Ward, Barbara Jordan was taught to defy expectations. She understood that to succeed, she would need to forge her own path. With relentless determination and unyielding tenacity, Barbara Jordan made history as Texas’s first Black state senator and the first Southern Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In a world dominated by white men, she moved with deft skill, earning both their respect and their fear. At a time when the idea of a Black woman holding power seemed inconceivable, Barbara Jordan created a roadmap for change.

Angela Lynn Tucker’s THE INQUISITOR offers a powerful portrait of Barbara Jordan’s rise to prominence. Told through Barbara’s commanding voice and making use of archival footage, the film weaves her inspiring personal story with key historical moments, highlighting her profound impact on American politics. Her legacy invites reflection on the nation’s past and present, emphasizing the importance of civic engagement and the power of bipartisanship.

Barbara Jordan’s oratory skills became legendary, particularly her historic speech during the Watergate hearings, which earned her the moniker “The Inquisitor.” This title symbolized her dedication to challenging the status quo and her commitment to holding those in power accountable.

Featuring interviews with Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Dan Rather, and many others, and narrated by the Academy Award-nominated actress Alfre Woodard, THE INQUISITOR illuminates Barbara Jordan’s extraordinary life and legacy.

PRESS

More than just a spotlight on a fascinating historical figure, [Tucker's] fantastic film brings the urgency and terror of our current political moment into stark relief.

Andrea Schmidt Movie Jawn

The strength of the film really lies in Jordan’s words, and Tucker always gives them the weight they deserve.

Beth Accomando Alliance of Women Film Journalists

When the film employs its end credits to show the many monuments in Rep. Jordan’s likeness around the state, Tucker can take pride in building something equally formidable, providing a stage once again for her words to reverberate.

Stephen Saito The Moveable Fest

A wonderful archival documentary about Barbara Jordan, a trailblazer and one of the great orators in American political history.

Stephen Silver SS Ben Hecht

Told through Barbara’s own commanding voice, as narrated by Alfre Woodard, the film intertwines rich archival footage, stylish interviews and more to tell the inspiring story of an American icon.

Faridah Gbadamos Tribecca Film

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Tribeca Film Festival, 2025
  • DC/DOX Film Festival, 2025
  • Austin Film Festival, 2025
  • New Orleans Film Festival, 2025

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Angela Tucker

Angela Tucker is an Emmy and Webby Award–winning filmmaker and artist dedicated to telling stories that spotlight underrepresented communities in bold and unconventional ways.

Her recent work includes Belly of the Beast (dir. Erika Cohn), a New York Times Critics’ Pick; The Trees Remember, a Webby-winning branded series created in collaboration with REI Co-Op Studios; and A New Orleans Noel, a Lifetime holiday film starring Patti LaBelle.

Angela’s past directorial work includes the PBS-aired documentary short All Skinfolk, Ain’t Kinfolk; the groundbreaking web series Black Folk Don’t, featured in Time Magazine’s “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life”; the feature film All Styles (Showtime); and A(sexual), a feature documentary about people who experience no sexual attraction, which streamed on Netflix and Hulu.

Her latest film, The Inquisitor—a portrait of political icon Barbara Jordan—will premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and broadcast nationally on PBS. (10/08)

Credits: 

Directed and Produced by Angela Lynn Tucker  

Produced by Trevite Willis, Moira Griffin  

Internal narration of Barbara Jordan voiced by Alfre Woodard  

Director of Photography and Co-Producer Duane Prefume  

Edited by Annukka Lilja  

Original Score by Omar Fadel  

Executive Producers Jameka Autry, Katy Drake Bettner, Tyrone Dixon  

Executive Producer Carrie Lozano  

Supervising Producer Michael Kinomoto  

  

Executive Producers for Firelight Media Stanley Nelson, Marcia Smith  

Supervising Producer Julia Pontecorvo  

Executive Producer for BPM Leslie Fields-Cruz, Denise A. Greene  

Archival Producers Michelle Ngo, Susanne Mason  

Co-Producer Charu Raman  

Associate Producer Ausinikka Hunter  

Consulting Producers Anurima Bhargava, Toneisha Taylor, Noland Walker  

Co-Executive Producer Jennifer Pelling,  

Executive Producers Grace Lay, Jonathan Logan  

Animation by Kelly Gallagher  

Graphics by Mindbomb  

Motion Graphics Artists Christopher Kirk, Syd Garon 

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Chisholm '72 - Unbought and Unbossed

This compelling documentary takes an in-depth look at the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first to seek nomination for the highest office in the land.
Learn more

Running with My Girls

Tired of watching local government ignore their communities’ interests, five diverse female activists decide to run for municipal office in Denver — one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the U.S.
Learn more

Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders

In 1965, when three women walked into the US House of Representatives in Washington D.C., they had come a very long way. Neither lawyers nor politicians, they were ordinary women from Mississippi,and descendants of African slaves. They had come to their country’s capital seeking civil rights, the first black women to be allowed in the senate chambers in nearly 100 years. A missing chapter in our nation’s record of the Civil Rights movement, this powerful documentary reveals the movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders. Their living testimony offers a window into a unique moment when the founders’ promise of freedom and justice passed from rhetoric to reality for all Americans. Through moving interviews and powerful archival footage, STANDING ON MY SISTERS' SHOULDERS weaves a story of commitment, passion and perseverance and tells the story of the women fought for change in Mississippi and altered the course of American history forever.
Learn more

LaDonna Harris: Indian 101

LADONNA HARRIS: INDIAN 101 from Comanche filmmaker Julianna Brannum, chronicles the life of Comanche activist and national civil rights leader LaDonna Harris and the role that she has played in Native and mainstream America history since the 1960s. In this new verite style documentary, Brannum, the great niece of Harris, celebrates her life and the personal struggles that led her to become a voice for Native people and her contemporary work to strengthen and rebuild indigenous communities and train emerging Native leaders around the world. Harris’s activism began in Oklahoma, fighting segregation and assisting grassroots Native and women’s groups. In Washington LaDonna introduced landmark programs and legislation returning territory to tribes, improving education and healthcare for Native Americans, ending job discrimination against women, and targeting other pressing issues of the time. For over three decades, “Indian 101,” her course for legislators, combatted ignorance about America’s most marginalized population. Using interviews, archival footage and photographs, this film justly celebrates one of the most important women leaders in Native American and U.S. history.
Learn more

Paulette

PAULETTE follows the historic campaign of Paulette Jordan, the first Native American candidate – as well as the first woman -- to win the Idaho Primary for Governor.
Learn more

Fannie Lou Hamer's America

FANNIE LOU HAMER’S AMERICA, winner of Best TV Feature Documentary or miniseries at the IDA Awards, is a portrait of Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.
Learn more

Heather Booth: Changing the World

Renowned organizer and activist Heather Booth began her remarkable career at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Through her life and work, this inspiring film explores many of the pivotal moments in progressive movements that altered our history over the last fifty years, from her involvement with Fannie Lou Hamer and the Freedom Summer Project, to her founding of the JANE Underground in 1964, to her personal relationships with respected leaders such as Julian Bond and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Featuring interviews from close friends, clients, political colleagues and current Midwest Academy students, HEATHER BOOTH: CHANGING THE WORLD explores Heather’s legacy in progressive politics and organizing. At a time when many are wondering how to make their voices heard, when civil and women's rights are under attack, Lilly Rivlin’s acclaimed documentary is an empowering look at how social change happens.
Learn more

Without a Whisper

WITHOUT A WHISPER - KONNON:KWE is the untold story of the profound influence of Indigenous women on the beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States.
Learn more

Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power

An intimate and inspiring  portrait of  Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), a champion of civil rights and the lone vote in opposition of the broad authorization of military force following the September 11th  attacks. 
Learn more

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority

In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was the driving force behind Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’s opportunities in higher education and athletics.
Learn more

Storming Caesars Palace

STORMING CAESARS PALACE chronicles the life of Ruby Duncan, an activist who fights the welfare system and becomes a White House advisor. A real-life superhero, she takes on both the Nevada political establishment and organized crime in a valiant and resolute act of civil disobedience.
Learn more

SALLY!

Sally Gearhart was a charismatic radical lesbian activist, author, and academic who spearheaded the 1970s and 80s lesbian feminist movement, yet her remarkable contributions have been largely unrecognized. This documentary changes that.
Learn more
Shopping Cart