Stolen
Eye Stolen
Eye is the latest and, in our opinion, the most effective of all Jane
Elliott’s films documenting her “blue eyed/brown eyed” diversity training
exercise. This is ironic because unlike the others, it is not set in America
whose black/white racial dynamic gave birth to the technique. Instead
Elliott brings together a group of Aborigines and white Australians for
an unusually dramatic and candid encounter. The Aborigines are frank and
eloquent in revealing the story of the expropriation of their lands by
European settlers and the deliberate attempts to destroy their culture
through government-sponsored assimilation programs. The whites seem genuinely
surprised and shocked by the pain they have inflicted. American diversity
trainers may find the film helpful because it removes the experience of
oppression from the familiar American racial terrain to a more universal,
yet less well-trod landscape. Viewers of The Stolen Eye will feel less
defensive and freer to discuss their own experiences of discrimination
as analogous but not redundant to those of the film’s participants. This
is a must-buy for any of Jane Elliott’s many admirers.  Blue Eyed The Essential Blue Eyed |
Director:
Philip Cullen
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