William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

One of the most infamous lawyers of the twentieth century, William Kunstler liked to shake things up. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father’s life and legacy: from middle-class family man to celebrated radical activist to “the most hated lawyer in America.”Kunstler’s resume is one for the storybooks. He fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and catapulted to the world stage by defending the Chicago Seven. Soon Kunstler became the go-to guy for the radical left. When inmates rioted at Attica prison or Native Americans took on the federal government at Wounded Knee, they chose Kunstler as their lawyer. In the 1970s, when Emily and Sarah were growing up, their father transitioned away from civil-rights cases. Lured to the limelight of high-profile criminal cases, Kunstler represented accused rapists, terrorists, and Mafia bosses. Being on the unpopular side of the infamous Central Park jogger trial was perhaps the linchpin that triggered his fall from grace. Was the real William Kunstler a hero or a villain? A defender of the defenseless or an egomaniac drawn to fame? Eschewing white-hat, black-hat simplicity, Emily and Sarah Kunstler share a provocative and deeply personal journey as they paint a complex portrait of a man whose life mirrors the battles that forever defined our history.
CAST

Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler - Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler (producers/directors) run Off Center Media (www.off-center.com), a production company that produces documentaries exposing injustices in the criminal justice system. Emily Kunstler graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and Video in 2000. Emily worked as a video producer for Democracy Now!, an independent national television and radio news program. She was a studio art fellow with the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2004. At Off Center Media, Emily has produced, directed and edited a number of short documentaries, including "Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War" (2003), which won Best Documentary Short at the Woodstock Film Festival, and was instrumental in winning exoneration for 35 wrongfully-convicted people, and "Getting Through to the President" (2004), which has aired on the Sundance Channel, Current TV, and Channel Thirteen/WNET. Sarah Kunstler graduated from Yale University with a BA in Photography in 1998 and from Columbia Law School with a JD in 2004. She is currently a criminal defense attorney practicing in the Southern District of New York. Along with Emily, she is a co-founder of Off Center Media and has produced and directed a number of short documentaries, including "Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War" (2003), and "Getting Through to the President" (2004). "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" is the sisters’ first documentary feature.

Screenings:

Fri. Jan 16 noon - DISTU16TD Temple Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 17 2:30 p.m. - DISTU173A Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Sun. Jan 18 6:00 p.m. - DISTU18SE Screening Room, Sundance Resort
Mon. Jan 19 6:45 p.m. - DISTU19BE Broadway Centre Cinemas V, SLC
Wed. Jan 21 9:15 a.m. - DISTU214M Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City
Fri. Jan 23 8:30 p.m. - DISTU233N Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City