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Talk Back # 7: Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler

Feedback session after screening of Disturbing the Universe.

Last night, audiences responded passionately to DocuClub’s screening of Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler. Sarah and Emily Kunstler’s portrait of their father William Kunstler elicited praise for its honest depiction of the conflict the filmmakers felt as the daughters of a controversial public figure. The documentary is a great journey through key moments in American history from the 1960s on, especially as this history was being made through individuals as attorney and civil rights activist Kunstler. The filmmakers’ main concern was to find out how much information about these historical moments—Kunstler’s affiliations with Martin Luther King Jr., the “Chicago Seven,” the Attica prisoner rebellion, and the American Indian Movement, among many others—would be enough for a general audience without the film seeming like a laundry list of events. After all, the salient quality of this documentary is precisely the perspective that Kunstler’s family has on him.

Moderator Dr. Seth Clark Silberman fielded comments from audience members who had much to say. In general, viewers felt that although the film was framed as a personal view on William Kunstler as seen by his daughters, there was a sensed timidity in how their feelings were expressed. In other words, there wasn’t enough of the filmmakers in the film.

I’d like to open up the floor now for more comments.

No Comments | Leave a Comment | Posted on October 16, 2008