The Boca International Jewish Film Festival presents the Southeast premiere of “The Trials of Alan Dershowitz” Saturday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 W. Plaza Real. Dershowitz and director, John Curtin, will attend and be part of a Q&A session following the film.
Tickets are $36 per person and are available at www.JFilmBoca.org. Additional information about the festival can also be found on that site.
Shot during the most turbulent years of the famed attorney’s career, the film offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of his private life and insight into some of the highest-profile 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.
In recent years, the renowned Harvard Law School professor was shunned by the liberal media and many of his former friends for his defense of President Trump. The film chronicles Dershowitz’s struggle to refute an accusation of sexual abuse by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Virginia Giuffre withdrew her charge eight years after first making it.
“I knew I was stepping into a minefield,” says Curtin who spent five years lensing the film 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 he tried to be critical but fair to his subject. Curtin said he 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 Curtin has produced 23 documentaries, including six biographies and a four-part series on the British monarchy for CBC. He won Canada’s highest film prize, the Gemini Award. His work has been broadcast abroad on BBC, PBS, Discovery, ARD, NHK, ARTE and others.
He 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.
The Inaugural Boca International Jewish Film Festival runs from Feb. 25 to March 17, and will present features, documentaries and short films from the U.S. and around the world, including Israel, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, France, Germany, and Australia. It will host filmmakers, producers and actors along with their films which will be shown at Cinemark Palace 20 and The Movies of Delray.
The Boca International Jewish Film Festival is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization celebrating Jewish culture through film. Founded by Wendy Honig, Lesley Rich and Arleen Roberts, it aims to bring together diverse audiences to explore and appreciate Jewish spirit, culture, traditions and humor.
A Massachusetts native who moved to Florida in 2000, he is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, with honors degrees in English and Journalism. In New England, he worked for the Attleboro (Mass.) Sun Chronicle and the Pawtucket (R.I.) Times, the latter for 28 years. After moving to Florida, he worked as a copy editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, and, in 2001, became a reporter and later, city editor, at the Boca
Raton News where he worked for eight years.
