Screening to be followed by a Q&A with Schmitt and director Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg, Harvest)
Poisoned water, damaged earth, and elevated cancer rates: environmental clean-up sites are one of the legacies left behind by the American chemical and munitions manufacturer “Olin Corporation”. Its other legacy was the John M. Olin Foundation, which donated millions to pushing a conservative agenda from the 1970s to the early 2000s. As a by-product or direct effort, the Olin Corporation and other conservative think tanks have had a deep and unsettling impact on American politics, family values, and women’s health. Working again the field of the 16mm New Left essay film, Lee Anne Schmitt connects an array of topics, books, and objects to reflect on the rise of the new conservative movement and the effects of dark money on American politics and culture. In easily her most personal film to date—as her father worked for Olin —she considers these values and their implications after becoming a mother. In the face of appalling attacks on women’s biological rights and the current dominance of the Republican party, Evidence is a sobering primer on the state of America today. (Berlinale)
TRT: 71 min
In person: Lee Anne Schmitt and Athina Rachel Tsangari
“An urgent and necessary film." —Marc van de Klashorst, International Cinephile Society
"A work of investigative journalism that has a formal and emotional backbone like few others of its ilk, Evidence is a must-see." —Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
"With Schmitt’s characteristic attention to the thematic weight of the materiality of film and objects, her cinematic essay implicates the viewer (and the filmmaker) in a wide shot of political and environmental history." —Chris Cassingham, InReviewOnline
"In Schmitt’s hands, what could have been a straightforward takedown of conservative philanthropic activism is instead a personal meditation on control and the ways that institutions and systems exert control over our beliefs, lives and bodies." —Shannon L. Bowen, The Hollywood Reporter
"Though replete with a wide variety of sources, the narrative is refracted through [Schmitt's] own perspective, offering insight into her staunchly gendered upbringing and subsequently complex relationship with motherhood, the nuclear family, property ownership and patriarchy." —Natalia Keogan, Filmmaker Magazine
(Available to download after screening date)