The little-known story of the legal battle between industrialist Henry Ford and Jewish lawyer Aaron Sapiro in the 1920s. After Ford’s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, published antisemitic smears portraying Sapiro as a “globalist” Jew seeking to control the agricultural industry, Sapiro filed a landmark libel lawsuit. The case became one of America’s earliest modern hate-speech trials, ultimately forcing Ford to apologize and shut down the paper. Director Gaylen Ross (Dealers Among Dealers, TJFF1996) brings the story to life through archival materials, historian interviews, and actor Ben Shenkman (Billions), who delivers Sapiro’s own words to the camera. The film connects this historic confrontation with contemporary concerns about prejudice, misinformation, and the power of propaganda.
(Originating Director Michael Rose. 1950-2020)