A note from the host;
Each month we screen documentaries that remind us that these films are more than just educational tools — they’re works of art. Our goal is to share unique and often overlooked documentaries that can move us, spark conversation, and help us connect with one another on a deeper level.
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About Sour Grapes:
In December 2013, the Justice Department concluded its first successful prosecution of a wine fraud case when Rudy Kurniawan, an Indonesian national, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for counterfeiting rare and very expensive wines. The conviction was the conclusion of a series of incidents that rocked the world of fine-wine collecting to its foundations, but which went largely unnoticed otherwise, even though it fundamentally shifted the perspective of an entire industry.
In Sour Grapes, filmmakers Reuben Atlas and Jerry Rothwell thoroughly and concisely detail the progression of Kurniawan’s wide-ranging fraud in a style that merges an Antiques Roadshow-style fascination with rare wines with a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous-type fixation on the spending habits of the overly affluent. The fact that a couple of Hollywood types were caught up in the deception only increases the likelihood that the documentary will become a staple of true crime-related accounts of the free-spending years preceding the Great Recession.
Runtime: 85 minutes