FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
MAKE A RESERVATION

 

About the Filmmakers

Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler (producers/directors) run Off Center Media (www.off-center.com), a production company that produces documentaries exposing injustice in the criminal justice system. The sisters founded Off Center Media in 2000, and have produced, directed, and edited a number of short documentaries, including Tulia, Texas: Scenes from theDrug War (2002), which won Best Documentary Short at the Woodstock Film Festival, and was instrumental in winning exoneration for 46 wrongfully convicted people; and Getting Through to the President (2004), which has aired on the Sundance Channel, Current TV, and Channel Thirteen/WNET.

Other notable Off Center Media projects include A Pattern of Exclusion: The Trial of Thomas Miller-El (2002), a documentary about racism at the trial of Miller-El, who had been on death row in Texas since 1985; The Norfolk Four: A Miscarriage of Justice (2006), about four young men in Norfolk, Virginia, who falsely confessed to a rape-murder that they did not commit; and Executing the Insane: The Case of Scott Panetti (2007). These films have contributed to campaigns to stay executions, convince decision makers to reopen cases, and exonerate the wrongfully convicted. William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe is the sisters' first documentary feature. The sisters won the L'Oreal Women of Worth Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the Best New Documentary Filmmakers Award at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival.

Emily Kunstler graduated in 2000 from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA and honors in Film and Video. She was a video producer for Democracy Now!, an independent national television and radio news program, and a studio art fellow with the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2004. Emily is also a co-founder of the Kent State Truth Tribunal, founded in 2010 to bring out and record the truth of what happened at Kent on May 4, 1970.

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.

About Tom Hayden

Tom Hayden is a former state senator and leader of Sixties peace, justice and environmental movements. He was one of the Chicago 8 - eight defendants charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges after protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and was represented by William Kunstler. He currently teaches at Pitzer College in Los Angeles. His books include The Port Huron Statement [new edition], Street Wars and The Zapatista Reader.

Director's Statement

By Sarah Kunstler

 

William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe grew out of conversations that Emily and I began having about our father and his impact on our lives. It was 2005, ten years after his death, and Hurricane Katrina had just shredded the veneer that covered racism in America.

When we were growing up our parents imbued us with a strong sense of personal responsibility. We wanted to fight injustice; we just didn't know what path to take. I think both Emily and I were afraid of trying to live up to our father's accomplishments.

It was in a small, dusty Texas town that we found our path. In 1999, an unlawful drug sting imprisoned more than 20 percent of Tulia's African American population. The injustice of the incarcerations shocked us, and the fury and eloquence of family members left behind moved us beyond sympathy to action.

While our father lived in front of news cameras, we found our place behind the lens. Our film, Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War helped exonerate 46 people.

One day when we were driving around Tulia, hunting leads and interviews, Emily turned to me. "I think I could be happy doing this for the rest of my life," she said, giving voice to something we had both been thinking. It was years later that we realized our father had made a similar journey to the South and left a trail of breadcrumbs we had unconsciously followed. That journey had changed his life as well.

When we decided to make a film about our father, we worried that the people we interviewed would see us only as Kunstler's daughters. But rather than being an impediment, this inevitable framework became a strength. While we loved our father's extravagant greatness, we also suffered his frailty. And we knew that many other children, especially those who lost a parent while still young, take a similar adult journey toward reconciling the parent with the person.

Today, with the election of America's first African American president, it is tempting to relegate the civil rights movement to a bygone chapter in a history book, and to celebrate our victories without acknowledging how much work remains to be done. More than 50 years have passed since the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for white and black children are inherently unequal. Yet racism and bigotry cast ugly shadows on our schools, streets, and courtrooms. Emily and I wanted to bring our father's story, and the battles he was a part of, out of the past, and to remind audiences that freedom is a constant struggle, and that the people who fight for it are heroes, not because they are without flaws, but because when they see injustice they find the courage to act.

William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe is a film about and for people of courage. We hope that it communicates that the world we inherit is better because someone struggled for justice, and that those changes will survive only if we continue to fight.

About Outside the Box [Office]

Outside the Box [Office] is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday and Sunday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

Check-In & Reservations