Robert Reich’s 4’11” frame once made him the target of bullies; today, it belies the scale of his impact. The Last Class, directed by Elliot Kirschner and produced by Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse, chronicles Reich’s final semester of teaching after 40-plus years. It’s a moving paean to a professor whose influence reaches far beyond the lecture hall — and a powerful meditation on aging, legacy and the unfinished fight for a fairer future.
A former U.S. secretary of labor under President Clinton, Reich helped pass landmark reforms like the Family and Medical Leave Act and the first minimum wage increase in years, and he led crackdowns on child labor and sweatshops. But before and after Washington, he has spent decades in classrooms — at Harvard, Brandeis and now UC Berkeley — teaching over 40,000 students and building a legacy not just as a policymaker, but as a singular voice for economic justice.
