Floyd Abrams: Speaking Freely

Filmmakers: Yael Melamede (Director), Clare Smith Marash (Producer)
Envoys: Yael Melamede (Director), Clare Smith Marash (Producer), Floyd Abrams (Subject)

Synopsis: Follow the 50-year career of First Amendment lawyer and legal expert Floyd Abrams. See how his landmark cases, from the Pentagon Papers to Citizens United, helped define free speech as it is known today.

About the Envoys:

Yael Melamede is the co-founder of SALTY Features—an independent production company whose goal is to create media that is thought-provoking, vital, and enhances the world. SALTY’s most recent films include: “Floyd Abrams: Speaking Freely,” and “Pay or Die.” Notable films include the Academy Award-winning “Inocente,” the Emmy-winning “When I Walk,” as well as the six part series “Why We Hate”. Melamede is a graduate of Yale University and was trained as an architect. She serves as a board member of UnionDocs and the Living City Project, and is also a member of AMPAS.

Clare Smith Marash is a New York-based writer and producer. Recent projects include the feature-length documentary Floyd Abrams: Speaking Freely (PBS/American Masters, 2023), directed by Yael Melamede, and the preeminent series Eyes on the Prize (director Rudy Valdez, HBO, 2024). In 2022, she was a producer of the Emmy-nominated four-part series 37 Words (directed by Dawn Porter & Nicole Newnham), which told the story of the landmark civil rights legislation Title IX and the multi-decade struggle for equality in education and athletics that continues to this day (ESPN, 2022).