Documentary '11/8/16' looks at a shocking, emotional Trump versus Clinton election day — and the divides that remain
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2016, 20-year-old Hana Barkowitz, a Kent State University student with bright eyes and bleached blond hair, bubbled over with optimism. The Pittsburgh native was about to vote in her first presidential election, and her passion for her candidate, Hillary Clinton, was unsinkable.
A documentary crew captured her exhilaration as Barkowitz, president of the Ohio school's College Democrats, spent the morning door-knocking around campus, then co-hosted a nonpartisan watch party to cheer as the polls came in.
But as the states slipped away from Clinton and Donald Trump's presidency crystallized into reality, disbelief and despair registered on her face. She wondered how anyone could still laugh at a time like this. Stunned, she confessed feelings she can't quite remember almost a year later, from a night that now feels like a blur: "I just can't believe it's this close."
Barkowitz is one of 16 diverse Americans who share their hopes, dreams, triumphs and heartbreak in
