The Eye of the Storm (1970 film)

The Eye of the Storm is a 25-minute 1970 American television documentary featuring schoolteacher Jane Elliott conducting her Blue-Eyes-Brown-Eyes exercise in discrimination, which was narrated by Bill Beutel and directed by William Peters.

Plot summary

William Peters follows Jane Elliott's conversely controversial and lauded schoolroom exercise of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of elementary school kids by their eye color. It was a demonstration of prejudice and discrimination meant to teach the students about the unfairness of racism, developed as a response to the shooting of Martin Luther King in April 1968. The film records Elliott in 1970 while conducting the exercise for the third time.

Cast

• Bill Beutel as the narrator and ABC reporter
• Jane Elliott as Herself
• 16 students, including Sandra, Raymond (I felt like a king), Russel Ring, John (who hit Russel), Greg (people of color are "not part of this world"), Brian, Rex, Laurie, Donna, Roy, Susan Ginder, Verla, Sheila

Sequel

This documentary was followed up with A Class Divided, a 1985 Frontline episode where footage from The Eye of the Storm is intercut with new footage of the students as adults reflecting how the experience affected their lives.

External links

• The Eye of the Storm at the Internet Movie Database
• The Eye of the Storm on YouTube