Ayanna Pressley

On Sunday, the Roxbury International Film Festival held a screening of “She Dared to Dream,” a short documentary offering a behind the scenes look at the life and career of Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman elected to Boston’s city council, and later the first Black woman elected to Congress in Massachusetts.

Sunday’s screening, which Pressley attended, was part of the festival’s Dreamers series, which focused on short films highlighting Black women stories involving human rights and their contributions to modern day activism.

“Dreaming is not only powerful, it is necessary.” Pressley said at the event.

Detailing her first influences, such as her late mother (Sandra Pressley), and her journey in living proudly with alopecia, “She Dared to Dream” shows the Congresswoman in vulnerable moments.

Director Abby Ginzberg, a Peabody and Emmy winner, followed Pressley for several days as she worked to free Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student who was detained by ICE agents in Somerville last year.

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The two were introduced while Ginzberg was working on “Speaking Truth Into Power,” a documentary about Oakland, Calif. mayor Barbara Lee, who mentored Pressley. But Pressley initially declined Ginzberg’s request to document her own story.

“To be Black and a Black woman, everything I do is political,” she said at the screening, explaining that she feared her transparency could be weaponized against her in future campaigns.

But in the lead up to the country’s 250th anniversary, as she worked to push back against the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, she had a change of heart. Pressley said more stories like her own need more light among citizens. She also said that attitudes of distrust toward the government among the electorate calls for elected officials to pull back the curtain and tell their stories.

“She’s been on the front lines essentially trying to save our democracy, and I think people should know more about her,” Ginzberg said in an interview before the screening.

From Lee to Pressley to Maxine Waters(who’s featured in the film talking about Pressley), bringing the stories of Black women in Congress to screens across the country is Ginzberg’s mission.

“She Dared to Dream” has been on a quite the screening tour since it premiered at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival in August of 2025, with 11 events in the last year, including in Cambridge during Emerge Massachusetts. Ginzberg said she hopes the documentary will be available on streaming services no later than February 2027.

The film speaks to voters and community leaders, but Pressley is also hoping the events depicted resonate with her fellow liberals active in Congress.

“I need Democrats to name and acknowledge that this [Trump] administration is anti-Blackness on steroids,” she said.

As Ginzberg works to get “She Dared To Dream” on screens at home by next Black History Month, Pressley said she wants her story to serve as a “love letter” to activists and politicians throughout the nation.

“I want to make sure anything I’m doing is going to advance the greater cause,” Pressley told the Boston Globe.

Auzzy Byrdsell can be reached at [email protected].