Leading the defense in the 1969–70 trial of the Chicago Seven, William Kunstler became a radical and a celebrity, and this vivid documentary captures how those two facets of his life worked together in morally urgent and contradictory ways. William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe was directed by his daughters, Emily and Sarah Kunstler, which may set off your hagiography alarm, but they don't shy away from their father's showboating ego, or his eagerness to take on any client (e.g., El Sayyid Nosair, assassin of Israeli firebrand Meir Kahane), the more infamous the better. Yet his pluck and chutzpah shine through.
