If you haven’t seen the lawyer Gloria Allred on television — a distinct impossibility — she now appears on movie screens in “Seeing Allred,” a documentary that’s remarkably engaging despite treating its rough-and-tumble hero with kid gloves.

Ms. Allred, who specializes in women’s rights cases, has represented many of those who have accused influential men (including Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polanski) of sexual assault, discrimination or other crimes. Though she also handles lower-profile cases, she’s best known for sitting with clients behind banks of microphones, or standing in front of cameras at protests and marches.

Such images have given her a reputation as a grandstander and media manipulator. She counters that her methods hold powerful figures accountable and provide their often-silenced victims with a voice, “even if they can’t have justice in the conventional setting of a court of law.”