SJFF: THE CONSULTANT – ARTHUR FINKELSTEIN (Virtual)

Working behind the scenes for decades, political consultant, pollster, and key advisor, Arthur Finkelstein, was instrumental in getting conservative candidates elected in the US, Israel, and across the globe. As a gay, Jewish man, he lived a double life of extreme contradictions.

Streaming Window: March 13-26

More on THE CONSULTANT(פינקלשטיין)

Eado Zuckerman | Documentary | Israel | 2022 | English and Hebrew w/English subtitles | 71m | NR

People are inconsistent by nature, but Arthur Finkelstein, the master GOP political wizard who changed political campaigning all over the world, was a bundle of extreme contradictions. As a political consultant, pollster, and key advisor, he was influential and instrumental in getting conservative candidates, including presidents, elected in the US and Israel, from Alfonse D’Amato to Jesse Helms, from Nixon to Netanyahu. His brand of divisive, in-your-face messaging has become the new normal. But the charismatic Finkelstein was as skilled in compartmentalizing his private life as he was facile with polls and slogans. THE CONSULTANT features a plethora of archival footage and home movies and is told with the support of and first-hand accounts by his husband, Donald Curiale, with whom Finkelstein raised two children and married in 2005 when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. The film raises the (largely unanswered) question: how could Finkelstein help so many candidates who were anti-gay or blatantly antisemitic?

Director Bio

Eado Zuckerman is an Israeli documentary filmmaker known for producing DIFFERENT SKY (2006) and directing LAST CIGARETTE WITH RABIN (2015). He worked with Finkelstein for 20 years, producing and directing political ads in Israel. View official bio on IMDB.

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