THE TRIALS OF ALAN DERSHOWITZ

America’s Most Controversial Attorney Under a Microscope in New Film

World Premiere with Alan Dershowitz in attendance 6pm Thurs, Nov. 9th, Village East, NYC Trailer & tickets: https://www.docnyc.net/film/the-trials-of-alan-dershowitz/

The Trials of Alan Dershowitz gets its world premiere in Manhattan tomorrow. Shot during the most turbulent years of the lawyer’s career, the film gives a behind-the-scenes look at his private life and the inside story of some of the most controversial cases of our time.  

From Claus von Bulow to OJ Simpson to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, Dershowitz has represented America’s most hated defendants and makes no apologies for it. “If you don't like criminal defense attorneys, just imagine living in a country without them, like Iran or the former Soviet Union,” he says in the film.

In recent years, Dershowitz has been shunned by the liberal media for his defense of  President Trump. His longtime friend, Larry David, famously screamed at him that he was “disgusting” at a popular coffee stop on Martha’s Vineyard. The professor apparently provoked the comedian by suggesting “We can still say hello.” The real life episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm made headlines around the world.

The film portrays Dershowitz in the fight of his life to refute an accusation of sexual abuse by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s underage victims. Virginia Giuffre only withdrew her charge eight years after first making it.

“I knew I was stepping into a minefield with this film,” says Curtin who spent five years shooting it and more than 2,000 hours editing it. “Dershowitz is one of the most divisive figures in America, today. Maybe that was the attraction for me.”

The Montreal-based director says his film is critical but fair to its subject and could be seen as a kind of counterpoint to the “deliberately unflattering” profile of the professor published by The New Yorker in 2019. Former ACLU president Nadine Strossen calls the piece “defamatory” in the documentary. “They published a knowingly false story,” says lawyer and longtime Dershowitz friend Harvey Silverglate. “He was the Clarence Darrow of his day and they wanted to take him down.”

Curtin finds it “a bit ironic that one of America’s preeminent defenders of the First Amendment is being shunned and deplatformed by the very people who used to sing his praises.”

Interviewees include Gloria Allred, Megyn Kelly, Mike Tyson, Ron Kuby, and Natan Sharansky.

Canadian filmmaker John Curtin has 23 documentaries to his credit, including six biographies and a four-part series on the British monarchy for CBC. John is the winner of Canada’s highest film prize, the Gemini Award.  His work has been broadcast abroad on BBC, PBS, Discovery, ARD, NHK, ARTE and others. John freelanced for CBC, NPR and The New York Times in Paris and Berlin for five years and later worked as a television reporter in Montreal.