Airing on HBO on June 29th at 9 p.m. is a documentary film by Liz Garbus, Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech.  If the name Garbus sounds familiar, it should.  Liz is the daughter of Martin Garbus, first amendment lawyer for clients ranging from Lenny Bruce to Don Imus.  The heart of this film is an homage by daughter to father for his life’s work, a very endearing and poignant subtext to a fascinating study of the state of free speech in America.

The fear about documentaries is that they are leaden and heavy-handed in their desire to drive a point home.  This was of particular concern with Shouting Fire, given that the subject lends itself to being overwrought and hyperbolic.  But Liz Garbus’ handling was exceptionally gentle, never ramming the message down our throat, and instead showing sensitivity toward all sides of the argument rather than using her film to ridicule those for whom free speech was either an inconvenience or an infringement on political correctness. 

Juxtaposing some of the best known historic examples of the abridgment of free speech. such as McCarthyism, Skokie and the Pentagon Papers, with some current examples, like Ward Churchill, Debbie Almontaser and Chase Harper, a high schooler who wore a t-shirt with words “Homosexuality is Shameful.”  As one would expect, Garbus didn’t go for the low-handing fruit, but dealt with the problematic aspects of the first amendment head on.  Free speech is almost always protected in the ugly cases, the ones expressing ideas we would rather not hear.  And that, of couse, is the point of free speech.

The movie is largely fast pased, interrupted by soft-spoken commentary from Martin Garbus which makes one wonder how anyone could call him a bully, as well as Ken Starr and 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner.  Garbus also included commentary by Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which added little and fed into the stereotype of wild Jewish liberal, and Floyd Abrams, who has certainly done his share of important First Amendment cases but comes off pedantic and devoid of charm.

For those who keep abreast of First Amendment cases, the descriptions tended to be a little too long and tedious, but not so much as to make you hope for a commercial.  Still, with the historic aspect of the documentary, it served to draw insightful parallels and remind us how our zeal for freedom ebbs and flows, and how the voices that one would expect to speak out in support of constitutional rights can be the same as those that seek to curtail it when transitory fears emerge.

A particularly compelling aspect of this documentary can be found in the final question posed to Martin Garbus, as to why today might be different than our past digressions into the curtailment of free speech.  Garbus notes that unlike before, we are now looking at a very young Supreme Court contingent, disinclined to be terribly concerned over the infringement of speech, giving us 25 to 30 years before there is even a chance that the Supreme Court will renew its interest in returning to a robust right to free speech.  He makes a great point, and to take it a step farther, there’s no guarantee that the next few justices will be cut from a different cloth than the current majority, such that his estimate might be a bit rosy.

For anyone who has a concern for the freedom of speech, and is mentally equipped to consider that it’s not just about the freedom to hear that which pleases you politically, this is a great documentary.  Whatever you do, don’t miss Posner’s mumbled line about the worthiness of what children have to say.  It’s a keeper. 

Fair weather friends of free speech are likely to find this film more troubling, as it clearly demonstrates that some of those politically inclined toward free speech are in fact some of speech’s worst enemies, reminiscent of the recent Cyber Civil Rights debate.  And for those younger folks of the libertarian bent, this documentary will serve as a great primer as to how we arrived at our current state, and will provide you with some historical perspective. 

Liz Garbus’ Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech is a great documentary and a fascinating film. Not only will you learn something, but you’ll enjoy it in the process.  It will air on HBO on June 29th at 9 p.m.