American Radical : The Trials of Norman Finkelstein is an award @-@ winning documentary film about the life and career of Norman Finkelstein , released in 2009 and directed by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier . It have been screened in Amsterdam IDFA , in Toronto Hot Docs and in more than 40 other national and international venues , it received a freshness rating of 100 % on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes . The same year Finkelstein appeared in Defamation ( Hebrew : השמצה ; translit . Hashmatsa ) a documentary film by award @-@ winning Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir .