The trailer for American Radical: the Trials of Norman Finkelstein which will make its International Premiere at the 2010 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
As a devoted son of Holocaust and ghetto uprising survivors, a disgraced academic, and a fierce critic of Israeli and American Mideast policy, it’s never been easy for Professor Norman Finkelstein. From 2004 to 2008, filmmakers David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier travel alongside the professor on his various speaking engagements through the most controversial point of his career. Stops include Concordia University and the universities of Waterloo, Toronto, and Western Ontario. The scene-stealing renegade was briefly introduced to audiences in last year’s Defamation. Now, American Radical provocatively contextualizes the depth and scope of Finkelstein’s work and purpose, juxtaposing interviews with critics, family members, childhood friends, academic colleagues, supporters, and Finkelstein himself. This intimate portrait follows the lonely fight of a passionate and complex provocateur, relentless in his pursuit for justice yet tormented by his failures.