MessageFYI
----- Original Message -----
From: Leslie, Bruce L. CAWS:EX
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 11:29 AM
Subject: FW: INDECENTLY EXPOSED! ON CBC - Jane Elliott ("Blue Eyed") documentary
FYI , my apologies for cross-posting. Please distribute as appropriate.
If you haven't been "exposed" to Jane Elliott and her unique approach to
helping folks cross the cultural divide
(http://www.newsreel.org/films/blueeyed.htm) you must make time to see this
film, shot on location in Regina. - Bruce
www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/
INDECENTLY EXPOSED! KICKS OFF THE PASSIONATE EYE'S SECOND SEASON ON CBC
TELEVISION, MONDAY, JANUARY 24 AT 9 PM Repeating Wednesday January 26
at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
"I'm your resident bitch for the day -- welcome to the workshop!"- anti-racism
expert, Jane Elliott
That's how anti-racism expert Jane Elliott describes her role in this
reality-based documentary that challenges Canadians attitudes towards Native
Canadians. "Even nice Canadians are racist." Whether or not you agree, that's
Elliott's starting point as she welcomes and bullies 22 Canadians who have
volunteered to participate in her internationally renowned workshop. With
cameras rolling, she divides the unsuspecting participants by eye color
blue-eyes in one group, brown-eyes (many of them Native Canadian) in the other.
Elliott turns the tables on the participants treating the blue eyes as "persons
of color", confronting and humbling them, while the "brown eyes" get treated
with respect. Filmed in Regina, Saskatchewan, Indecently Exposed! illustrates
and exposes how systemic racism continues to thrive in Canada today. It airs
Monday, January 24 at 9 p.m. on THE PASSIONATE EYE on CBC Television.
While there have been other films featuring Elliott's workshops, this is the
first time Elliot has brought her controversial workshop to Canada, and
Indecently Exposed! focuses its attention on the individual Canadian
participants who have 'exposed' themselves to her confrontational and highly
effective techniques. These powerful insights into the personal lives of the
participants, combined with the intensity of the workshop experience, creates
an engrossing emotional and psychological drama that plays out as the blue eyes
learn what it is like to be targets of discrimination.
Amongst the blue-eyes, Joe, a retired teacher and farmer, attributes most of
the problems First Nations people experience to troubles with alcohol. Steve, a
store manager, thinks the workshop will be a good chance to share his views on
racial prejudice with others. Juanita, an elementary school teacher, is afraid
of saying the wrong thing. Trent, a young factory worker, has heard the racial
slurs at work, but never thought it was his responsibility to do anything about
them. They are all in for a shock.
A member of the brown eyed group, Earnest, an aboriginal youth counselor,
states, "Racism is alive and well in Regina, and right across Canada."
Michelle, a brown-eyed personnel officer concurs, "When you're told enough
times that you don't belong here, that you're not good enough, you start to
believe it." Maynard, a manager with Saskatchewan Learning and a residential
school graduate says, "I was ashamed of being Indian!"
The purpose of Elliott's workshop is "to convince white-skinned people that
they are not God's chosen people," by having them "walk a mile" in the other
person's shoes - the shoes of a person of colour. For a few hours, the
blue-eyes are subjected to the kind of insults and humiliation that First
Nations people experience every day of their lives. The goal, Elliott says, is
to find even one person who is willing to stand up and change things, to become
an activist, to do something about the problem. For some of the blue-eyes
participants, the workshop is a life-changing experience. For others, not much
has changed. In reality, perhaps brown-eyed Clayton Maxxi puts it best: "We
wish this never existed, that it was just a movie, but it's real!"
Indecently Exposed! is directed by Trevor Grant; produced by Michael Snook of
WestWind Pictures for CBC Television's THE PASSIONATE EYE. Catherine Olsen is
the executive producer of THE PASSIONATE EYE.
****************
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral
crisis, maintain their neutrality." Dante, 1265-1321
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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