In a divided America, TV host and activist Van Jones works across party lines on landmark criminal justice reform and a more humane response to the addiction crisis. While trying to pass a bipartisan bill that would bring thousands of incarcerated people home early and working with a polarized Congress, Jones is condemned by the right for his progressive beliefs — and by the left for working with conservatives. THE FIRST STEP reveals an intimate portrait of an activist’s isolation and internal struggles as he fights to make change in a divided nation drawn into a historic struggle for freedom and justice.