There’s an interesting documentary screening tomorrow night at the Hollywood Theater, 7pm. The National Lawyers Guild will be hosting a screening of Bernadine Mellis’s documentary The Forest for the Trees, about civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham, who started out his career representing the Black Panthers. The film focuses on Cunningham’s representation of tree-hugger activist Judi Bari, whose car was bombed in 1990, three hours before she was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of terrorism.

FOREST FOR THE TREES: Frustration of litigation…

Convinced it was a ploy by the FBI to discredit her and the grassroots environmental movement, Bari decided to sue. Lawyer Dennis Cunningham took on Bari’s case and after 12 years, it finally got a court date. One for the conspiracy theorists among you, but also, for those of you interested in what on earth motivates a civil rights lawyer to keep going.