Blog Post  Cinema of Law: 2024 Film Series

Overview

The Cinema of Law film series is a free public program every March to screen movies on law and justice, now in its eighteenth year. The Berkshire Law Library, in partnership with the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum and the Berkshire County Bar Association, hosts the program at the Berkshire Athenaeum – Pittsfield’s public library.  The films are introduced by a judge or an attorney, who will speak for 15-20 minutes prior to each screening, and stay to answer audience questions afterward. Attention Berkshire Community College Students: This program has been approved for FORUM Credit.

Films

March 11 (Monday) On the Basis of Sex (2018)

A biopic film on the life and early cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, focusing on her struggle for equal rights and the groundbreaking tax case she argued with her husband.
Introduced by Attorney Monica Wagner

March 12 (Tuesday) The Rainmaker (1997)

An aspiring young lawyer takes on a fraudulent insurance company to seek justice for a family whose son is dying of leukemia, adapted from a 1995 John Grisham novel.
Introduced by Attorneys John Martin, Andrew Hochberg, and David Cianflone

March 19 (Tuesday) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

The film depicts the 1969 Chicago Seven trial, in which President Nixon’s federal government charged eight anti-Vietnam war activists with conspiring to incite a riot at the previous year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago
Introduced by Judge Mark J. Pasquariello

March 25 (Monday) Liar, Liar (1997)

A comedy about a successful lawyer Fletcher Reede, played by Jim Carrey, who is also a habitual liar. His life takes a turn when his son makes a birthday wish that his father cannot lie for 24 hours, causing Fletcher to speak only the truth, which leads to a series of humorous, embarrassing, and life-changing events.
Introduced by Attorney Dean Manuel

Time and location

Films to be shown in the Berkshire Athenaeum Auditorium downstairs, One Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201.

Presentation will begin at 6 p.m., and a movie will follow.