THE ANGRY EYE Documentary Competition

Jane Elliott has no intention of retiring until prejudice and discrimination are eradicated from our society. “Does that mean I have a job for life?” she sighs. “I think it does.”

Elliott takes no joy in such job security. A former third-grade teacher, she began conducting her “blue-eyed” exercises the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Taking pigmentation-in this case, eye color-as an arbitrary dividing line, she builds a microcosm of contemporary American society. With startling force and emotional intensity, Elliott demonstrates the effects of racial prejudice, compelling her more privileged participants to live in another world for the longest two and a half hours of their lives.

THE ANGRY EYE documents one such session, skillfully interweaving the classroom exercise with post-session interviews that show the students struggling to come to terms with their recent experiences. Through the intense and often painful emotions that the exercise provokes shines a hope that, someday, we will overcome the capricious lines that divide us-if only we can learn to accept and appreciate our differences.