For 30 years, Jane Elliot has committed herself to fighting against racism, prejudice and ignorance through an exercise separating blue-eyed persons from brown-eyed persons. This film witnesses one such experiment with a group of business people who find themselves experiencing discrimination and condemnation due to their eye color. Director Bertram Verhaag captures the emotional power of the experiment and forces the spectators to challenge themselves like the participants.
Category: Documentary
A film about the radical attack surrealism and Dada wrought on the familiar and traditional art values of the past. Through the perceptive choice of paintings and sculptures from the work of de Chirico, Duchamp, Man Ray, Ernst, Miro, Magritte, Dali, Klee and others, we become exposed to the philosophy, poetry and politics of these fascinating art movements.
A portrait of Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson –black harmonica player, singer, and comedian who made his living “busking” on the street and performing in patent-medicine shows touring southern towns. Footage includes excerpts from one of his last medicine shows, videotaped at a county fair in 1972, and material filmed near his home in South Carolina in 1975.
ON A TIGHTROPE is a heartwarming and beautiful documentary film with a grave backdrop. The documentary follows four children at a government orphanage in Xinjiang, China. The four are learning the ancient Uyghur tradition of Dawaz, tightrope walking. The children’s struggle to master the tightrope becomes a metaphor for their lives, as they walk the line between being true to their cultural and religious heritage and the communist party’s harsh demands for obedience.
“There are in life faces which, at first sight, appear unremarkable, but when seen through the camera or when projected on screen they become extraordinary. Behind every expression lies an entire life, a destiny,” Ferenc Grunwalsky once declared. While making a sociological documentary, the director-cinematographer came across a young mother who so caught his attention that he decided to devote an entire portrait film to her. In the absence of dialogue, the most minute expressions become the film’s ‘protagonists’, and instead of explanatory narration and captions the power of imagery prevails.
A series of interviews are conducted concerning people’s beliefs towards the possibility of an afterlife. The interviews are filmed against a set of strange backdrops, and are intercut with clips from classic films and a variety of stock footage.
Originally a black religious song, then a union organizing song, “We Shall Overcome” gradually became the protest anthem that set America marching towards racial equality. By tracing the sources of one song, the film uncovers the diverse strands of social history which flowed together to form the Civil Rights movement. Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Julian Bond, Andrew Young and others reminisce about what this song meant during the sit-ins, voter registration drives and protest marches of the sixties.
Documentary portrait of writer and performer Spalding Gray, tracing his journey from his Rhode Island childhood to his rise as a celebrated monologist. Through interviews, performance excerpts, and reflections, it explores how he transformed personal experience into art. The film highlights his distinctive storytelling style—wry, confessional, and deeply human—revealing the creative process behind his acclaimed stage works.