JANE ELLIOTT AGAINST THE WORLD
MON, 12/7, 7:00pm, 99 min
BAY STREET THEATER
Director: Judd Ehrlich
Producers: Judd Ehrlich, Max Powers, Elena Gaby
Editors: Max Powers, Leah Goudsmit, Albin Pepe
Cinematographers: Peter Eliot Buntaine, Sean Hanley
Jane Elliott, a rural Iowa schoolteacher in 1968, resolved to do something to root out the entrenched racist attitudes in the country. She devised her now-famous “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise, which she first carried out the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King as a kind of social experiment in her third-grade classroom. The exercise ignited an uproar in the local community, and ultimately created deep divisions in her own family. The furor only continued to grow as her message began to spread. She became a national voice against racism. Now nearly 90, Jane Elliott refuses to hold back amid today’s fights about race, history, and power after a lifetime of speaking out. Filmmaker Ehrlich confirms that Jane “does not want your admiration, she wants your courage.”
Judd Ehrlich was born in New York. The son of an architect and schoolteacher, he grew up on lower Broadway, roller skating at The Roxy. Judd directed and produced two Emmy-nominated films: Run For Your Life and Mayor of the West Side, as well as the award-winning documentary Magic Camp.