Eric Sirotkin
Executive Producer and story co-creator Eric Sirotkin is making his first full-length feature film. He is the founder of Ubuntuworks, LLC, a company engaged in film production, photography and peacemaking that "reflects our common humanity." With a background in theatre, photography, and even independent film projects, including the infamous 8th grade film production of The Dog that Ate Wrangel Alaska, Eric has always mixed work and creativity.
While practicing law for more than 25 years, specializing in civil and constitutional rights with an emphasis on the rights of workers, Mr. Sirotkin led an active life lecturing in Middle and High Schools on participatory democracy, publishing articles on his election monitoring in South Africa or his holistic approach to law, and speaking out on world peace issues. He founded Legal Counseling Services whose goal was to "find creative solutions to workplace problems and shift a crisis into an opportunity for change, transformation and justice." He developed a method of using the Chinese Five Elements and other holistic and therapeutic techniques to approach conflict, and was listed in the Best Lawyers in America.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Morality and Constitutional Democracy from James Madison College at Michigan State University, he went on to earn his Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) from the University of Detroit School of Law. While teaching courses in Employment and Labor Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law, as well as dozens of Continuing education programs, he combined a unique teaching style encouraging lawyers and students to practice law in a manner that makes a difference. His treatise on Labor and Employment Law is still used extensively by lawyers as it featured a different approach for law texts by including a primer for both employers and employees on how to mediate and approach conflict in the workplace.
His seminal 1983 law review article Defending Abusively Discharged Employees: In Search of A Judicial Solution was cited as a basis for establishing the claim of Wrongful Discharge in New Mexico. Through many high profile employment cases, including disputes surrounding sexually hostile work environments, assaulting lineman-hazing practices, race discrimination and free speech cases, he won several multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements and effectuated important company procedural changes.
As a member of the National Lawyers Guild, an organization committed to the primacy of human rights over economic interests, since 1978, he has defended demonstrators protesting nuclear weapons and waste, sanctuary workers helping Central American refugees, and demonstrators protesting wars, environmental issues and tuition hikes. He worked extensively for several years in South Africa as coordinator of the International Monitoring Project of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and was part of the Constitutional transition process in South Africa. He taught several courses in Japan along side Japanese lawyers on Restoring Human Dignity in the Workplace. He was also an election monitor for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in South Africa in the historic 1994 elections and has founded a Korean Peace Project, building relationships and peace between the US and both Koreas.
Mr. Sirotkin received the City of Albuquerque Human Rights Award "In recognition of his long standing commitment, contribution and concern as an advocate and moving force for human rights and human dignity, effectively and relentlessly working and speaking against discrimination practices on behalf of those who have been discriminated against, and promoting human rights and equality through the legal profession to the community at large."
Besides appearing in the film and serving as Executive Producer, he co-created the story, contributed his own photography and film footage, and kept the project financially afloat. He pegged the term "Committing Poetry" at the first Kimo Theatre Poetic Justice performance, held the night before the litigation was filed, in support of his client Bill Nevin's claim, because he "wanted to launch the lawsuit with poetry and show that the community would not be intimidated." He is committed to spread the film and its message of living your life with "creativity, imagination and rhythmic grace," to all 50 states and across the planet.