Here is a report written by filmmaker Emily Kuntsler about her recent visit to Nathan Hale to screen The story of William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe :
The highlight of our trip was getting to screen the film for 300 at Nathan Hale, a public high school in Seattle (go Raiders!). This screening was set up by Dustin Kaspar, SIFF's Educational Coordinator. Over time, I have become much more comfortable standing in front of a room of festival goers and talking about the film but nothing had prepared me for an auditorium full of sophomores. It was like being in high school all over again except this time I got to use the bathroom in the teachers' lounge. The students were so welcoming and enthusiastic that I soon forgot my initial apprehension.
The story of William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe is told from Sarah and my perspective when we were the age of the students who filled that auditorium, but until that day at Nathan Hale we had never had the privilege of sharing the film with young people. Before the screening began we asked the audience if any of them had heard of William Kunstler and a few lonely hands were raised. We always hoped that the film would be accessible to high school students but much of the history we tell in the film is not typically covered in high school curricula.
To our delight, the students were completely engaged and inspired by the film. Their questions following the screening were some of the most thoughtful and probing we have received from viewers of any age. They asked about racism in America and who was responsible for it and what it was like to lose a father while I was still in high school.
Bill loved nothing more than talking to young people. One student asked me what Bill might say to them were he there that day. The question completely caught me off guard, but it went to the heart of why Sarah and I made this film and what we hoped the film could accomplish in the world. I told the students that Bill would tell them the story of Michelangelo's statue of David and of Herman Melville's Moby Dick to illustrate how they all have the opportunity and the obligation to speak out and act in the face of seemingly unconquerable evil - how the struggle is perpetual and that we all must return to it day after day despite the odds.
As we were leaving students stopped us in the hall to talk about their desires to fight for justice and equality in their own way. Tracy and I left Nathan Hale High School completely exhilarated and excited to start our educational outreach campaign in the Fall, and to get the film into as many high school, college, and law school classes as possible. Bill would have loved to have been there.
