January 16, 2002
Contact: Leslie J. Webb (509-963-1685/fax 509-963-3561/e-mail: webble@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - “The Angry Eye,” a dynamic and provocative
documentary about discrimination, will be presented at Central
Washington University as part of the university’s yearlong focus on
diversity. Sponsored by the CWU diversity education center, the free,
public screening is slated Thursday, Jan. 30, at 3 p.m. in the
Samuelson Union Building (SUB) Cesar Chavez Theatre.
“This video provides a framework for dealing with issues of prejudice
in both the corporate and educational worlds,” Leslie Webb, CWU
diversity education center director, says.
Based on the work of Jane Elliott, a retired elementary school
teacher, the 2001 film demonstrates the “blue eyes/brown eyes” exercise
she developed in the 1960s. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., she used the exercise in her class to debunk the myth
of white superiority and illustrate what it meant to be a black
American.
Elliott has also been involved with the development of several other
documentaries, including “Eye of the Storm,” “Eye of the Beholder” and
“Blue-Eyed.” She called her work “an inoculation against
discrimination.”
The 35-minute film, which won a 2001 CINE Golden Eagle award,
challenges viewers to confront their own prejudices.
The CWU showing will be followed by a discussion to be led by Colin
Cox, an actor, director and filmmaker, who shot this latest documentary
in Elliott’s “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” series.
For more information about the presentation, or for persons
of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509)
963-1685, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-3323.
