Sisters Emily and Sarah Kunstler are the founders of Off Center Media, a documentary production company dedicated to racial justice and social change. Shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy Award, “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe” examines their father’s life and choices, tracing his career as a civil rights lawyer and fighter for racial justice, as well his representation of society’s most despised.
“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” is screening at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, which is taking place online March 16-20.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
EK&SK: The film is based on the work of Jeffery Robinson. This is a film about confronting this country’s history of anti-Black racism and white supremacy with an understanding that in order to transform this country – to push it to live up to its own ideals – we have to go back before we can go forward.
It is a film about reclaiming the narrative and debunking America’s creation myth.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
EK&SK: Jeff has been giving his talk for the past ten years in boardrooms, conference rooms, community centers, and places of worship. The first time we heard him speak, it changed the way we look at the world. Growing up, we were taught that it was our moral responsibility to stand up against racism and fight for justice. At the same time, as white people, we had the privilege of wading in — and out — of the fight against racism when it suited us.
After hearing Jeff’s talk and understanding how deeply racism permeates every aspect of American society, it became impossible for us to look at the world around us without seeing it. As filmmakers, we knew we had to help him reach a larger audience.
W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?
EK&SK: In many ways, we want audiences to have the experience we had when we heard Jeff for the first time. We want audiences of all races to realize that this is a history that has been hidden from all of us and that it is our collective obligation to share it and make a better world in our lifetimes.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
EK&SK: The biggest challenge was taking what was essentially a PowerPoint presentation and making it cinematic. We produced a Broadway show in six weeks, packing the Town Hall theater in NYC. We filmed Jeff on this historic stage with seven 4K cameras and a team of talented camera operators led by Jesse Wakeman and Frank Heath. But to transform his presentation into a film, we needed to get Jeff off of the stage and into the world.
We rented a 15-passenger van and hit the road, meeting with changemakers and eyewitnesses to history whose lived experiences help bring history to life — and show us that our past is still part of our present.
The film was also born out of the friends we made along our journey who welcomed us into their communities, families, and lives, who trusted us with their stories.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
EK&SK: Our film was funded in large part by individual contributions, some big, some small. A lot of the contributions came from people who have heard Jeff speak and were motivated to help a filmed version of his talk make its way into the world. The Town Hall performance was filmed before a packed house of 1,500 people.
Every time Jeff spoke to an audience across the country, it was an opportunity to raise money for the film. We were also lucky to get some corporations to support the project. Ben & Jerry’s partnered with us to produce a podcast with Jeff with similar themes, and the company made a contribution to support the film, as did Vox, another podcast partner.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
EK&SK: Our first film, “Tulia Texas: Scenes from the Drug War,” came about when we went to Tulia through the work of The William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, an organization our mother founded in our father’s memory. A local pastor invited the organization to Texas to watch the trial of a young man, one of 46 people arrested in a drug sting that netted over 10 percent of the small town’s Black community daily. Everyone was arrested on the uncorroborated word of a shady figure who took notes of supposed drug deals on his leg. And people were going to jail for decades, some even for life.
It was astounding to us. And there was absolutely no press attention. We started filming because we felt an obligation to help get this story to a wider audience, to help the families fight for justice.
Our father was a larger-than-life figure, while the rest of our immediate family are more introverted. We are born observers, but we are also committed to anti-racist and social justice work. Filmmaking has been a way for us to be introverted activists, a tool to make a change in the world.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
EK&SK: The best advice came from one of our mentors, late civil rights lawyer Elizabeth Fink, who spent almost 30 years fighting for justice for the inmates of the 1971 Attica prison uprising. She would often say, “Dare to struggle, dare to win.” For us, Liz’s advice has always been about pushing through fear, taking a chance on yourself and the work.
Starting a film project is frightening. What if I can’t do this? What if I can’t do it well? What if I can’t find the money or support to make this a reality? Or what if I do find that support and end up disappointing those who have put their faith in me? Those fears never go away. But you do the work anyway. You dare to struggle.
In the case of the worst advice ever received, we were told that it would be difficult to work together because we are sisters. While we can’t promise to always behave professionally around each other — because of our history and closeness — we trust each other completely, the most important component of any collaborative relationship, especially an artistic one.
W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?
EK&SK: Our advice for other women directors is the same advice Liz gave us. To try. To put yourself out there. To dare to struggle. Also, don’t give in to imposter syndrome. We all deserve to be here, and we all have stories to tell.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
EK&SK: “Harlan County, USA” by Barbara Kopple, a documentary about a coal miners’ strike in Kentucky. Emily saw this film in film school and was inspired by how Kopple let the miners tell their own story, which speaks volumes about the respect she had for her subjects. It is clear Kopple worked hard to earn, establish, and maintain trust with the miners, and that’s more than half the battle in documentary filmmaking.
The film is riveting and puts the spotlight on a disenfranchised, forgotten segment of society. It’s also timeless. The topics that it covers — workers’ rights, healthcare, exploitation, and the ills of capitalism — are just as relevant today as they were when the film was completed in 1976.
“When the Mountains Tremble” by Pamela Yates, a documentary about social revolution and a war in Guatemala between the military and the Mayan indigenous population. Not only is the film a beautiful piece of work that introduced the world to fierce freedom fighter Rigoberta Menchú, but the footage from the film was also used as evidence in the Guatemalan court for crimes against humanity in the genocide case against Efraín Ríos Montt.
Yates uses the power of documentary to highlight untold stories and hold the feet of the powerful to the fire. It took a huge amount of courage and commitment to make this movie and we will forever be in awe of Yates for doing so.
“13th” by Ava DuVernay, a documentary which reveals mass incarceration as an extension of slavery. Tracing this connection through history, from the passage of the 13th Amendment to the war on drugs, the film is a stunning, clear-eyed, history lesson that exposes the inherent racism — and capitalistic profit motive — of the American prison industrial complex.
After watching this revelatory film, it is impossible to look at our prisons the same way ever again. We were deeply inspired by DuVernay’s work when we set out to make “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.”
W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?
EK&SK: We are bone-tired, like everyone else who is living through this pandemic.
We were very lucky we had completed most of our filming by the time the pandemic hit. It also created a space for us to buckle down and edit the film. When George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, all of us felt a renewed urgency to get this film done and out into the world. So, we had a lot of creative work to do, and an urgency to get it done.
We each have two children, who are now ages five, seven, ten, and eleven. Remote schooling while finishing this film has definitely been a challenge.
Sarah is also a criminal defense lawyer representing defendants charged with federal crimes. She has spent a lot of time during the pandemic trying to free her clients, many of whom are locked up in overcrowded pretrial facilities and prisons, which are breeding grounds for COVID-19.
Luckily, we live within blocks of each other in Brooklyn and are in a “pod” together with our families, so we are still able to meet, collaborate, and support each other.
W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color on screen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?
EK&SK: Support films that tell underrepresented stories. Support Black and brown filmmakers. Hire Black and brown filmmakers.
As white filmmakers, we have been asked why “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism” in America is our story to tell. Our answer is that the history of slavery and anti-Black racism in the United States is not Black history, it is American history, a history of white supremacy and white complicity as well as a history of Black oppression and resistance. As white people, it is our responsibility to reckon with this history and help preserve it as part of our collective memory as a nation.
It is also important that this film is a partnership between Black and white creators. It is based on the work of Jeffery Robinson, who is Black, and is the writer and a producer of the film.
While we are the directors, we have no ownership of the film, which belongs to Jeff. Profits, should there be any, will go to The Who We Are Project, a non-profit organization Jeff has established to continue this work.
