Elected in an upset in 2015, Ada Colau went from housing-rights activist to mayor of Barcelona in three incredible years. During her campaign, captured here in its entirety, she is ridiculed by media, attacked for her “Venezuelan” politics, and—rather hilariously, really—excluded from all the off-camera chumminess between the pompous mainstream charlatans she’s running against.

Her party, a new leftist coalition called Guanyem, even thwarts a clumsy sabotage attempt traced back to the interior ministry. That’s how sad and impotent the establishment starts to look in the face of Colau’s simple integrity. Meanwhile, in an amazing series of private video diaries, she wrestles with her profound distaste for every single aspect of the whole toxic charade. We couldn’t relate more. An essential film. 

Cinematheque, May 9 (7 p.m.)