Perhaps the most famous and enduring movie about divorce and child custody is Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Fathers and Families’ New York City members have a great chance to see this stunning divorce-related drama and discuss it with the film’s director, three time Academy Award Winning Director, Screenwriter and Producer Robert Benton, and novelist Avery Corman, author of the book Kramer vs. Kramer, this Wednesday (October 19) at 7:00 PM.
This event, hosted by Fordham Law School’s Forum on Law, Culture & Society, will be held at the James B.M. McNally Amphitheater at 140 West 62nd Street, New York, NY, 10023 (near Lincoln Center).
Come see this movie and add your perspective of how family court really operates during the discussion period with these distinguished guests, and be sure to mention the work of Fathers and Families. To learn more and to purchase tickets, click here.
In Kramer vs. Kramer–the most influential, if not the first, film to spotlight child custody battles and the law”s settled presumptions about parental roles–Dustin Hoffman stars as a workaholic father left to care for his son when his wife, played by Meryl Streep, leaves them. He is ultimately drawn into a bitter legal fight when she returns seeking custody of their child.
The film stars Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer, a workaholic advertising executive who has just been assigned a new and very large account. After being given the news, he returns home to find his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) in the process of leaving him. Saying that she needs to find herself, she leaves Ted to raise their son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself.
Fifteen months after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York in order to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues. What would happen in this scenario in present day family court? And how did the 1979 plot end?
To learn more about Kramer vs. Kramer, see Wikipedia’s entry here.