Mighty Ira | |
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Directed by | Nico Perrino, Aaron Reese, Chris Maltby |
Distributed by | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Mighty Ira is a 2020 documentary film by Nico Perrino, Aaron Reese, and Chris Maltby.[1][2] The film profiles the life and career of Ira Glasser, who was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001.[3]
The movie focuses on Glasser's advocacy for free speech and racial justice, as well as his defense of the rights of neo-Nazis to rally in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois in the 1970s, which at the time was home to many Holocaust survivors.[4][5] It also covers Glasser's unlikely friendship with William F. Buckley Jr. and his upbringing as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team.[6][7]
The idea for Mighty Ira first originated in 2017, after Perrino met Glasser in New York City at the funeral of writer and jazz critic Nat Hentoff.[8] The film was produced by Perrino and his Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression colleagues Reese and Maltby.[9] Perrino, a millennial, said that he helped create the film because he felt his generation didn't understand why Glasser's generation fought for free speech rights.[10]
The name "Mighty Ira" comes from a line in a poem written by one of Glasser's ACLU colleagues, read at the end of the film. The title of the poem, "Ira at the Bat", is a play on the famous "Casey at the Bat" poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer that includes a line about "mighty Casey."[11]
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the filmmakers decided to forgo taking Mighty Ira on the film festival circuit and instead released it through Angelika Film Center's virtual cinema program in October 2020.[12][13] The movie was later made available on streaming platforms, such as Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.[14][15]
Glasser appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and Real Time with Bill Maher to promote the film.[16][17]
Mighty Ira received generally positive reviews. The Hollywood Reporter called the movie "a warm portrait that poses ever-urgent questions," while journalist Matt Taibbi noted that it is "elegant and thought-provoking."[18][19] Spiked claimed the film is "a long-overdue tribute to a civil-liberties hero."[20] Matt Fagerholm, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave Mighty Ira a more mixed review, awarding it 2.5 out of 4 stars.[21]
The film attracted interest from Jewish publications, where it received favorable reviews focusing on the film's treatment of the Skokie case and Glasser's relationship with 96-year-old Holocaust survivor (and former Skokie resident) Ben Stern.[22][23][24]
Mighty Ira won the grand prize at the 2021 Anthem Film Festival.[25] It was also awarded "Best Documentary Feature Film" at the 2021 Lake Travis Film Festival.[26]