Aliza Kaplan, professor at Brooklyn Law School, is known as a passionate legal writing instructor, an advocate of the Law School’s Safe Harbor Project and a contributor to the National Advisory Committee of Equal Justice Works. Recently, Kaplan also added the title of award-winning film producer to her repertoire.
Kaplan’s film, “The Oath,” premiered at the Sundance film festival in January and took home the award for Best Cinematography in a documentary. The film is a follow up to her 2006 film “My Country, My Country,” which was written and directed by her longtime friend Laura Poitras and was nominated for an Academy Award.
“The Oath” is the second piece of Poitras’ post-9/11 trilogy, which focuses on brothers-in-law Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s most famous recruit, now on trial for terrorism. Poitras highlights Jandal’s daily life as a taxi driver in Yemen and Hamdan’s military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay prison.
“I am drawn to films that tell the stories of real people,” Kaplan said. “There is so much more to a person than what you see on the surface, and Laura does a beautiful job of exploring these layers.”
Kaplan’s goal as a producer dovetails with her goal as a legal advocate: “I am most concerned with changing the course of peoples’ lives.”
“The Oath” was released nationwide this month.
