“... a haunting, and beautiful, and urgent statement. You were asked to compose a living document/gesture reflecting Ms. Morrison’s ruminations upon the continued “othering” that we so often practice.Your shepherding of the project was outstanding.”
— Johnny Coleman, Artist and Professor of Art and Africana Studies, Oberlin College
“‘The Foreigner’s Home’ is unique in its focus on Ms. Morrison’s curated exhibition at The Louvre. Ms. Morrison’s analysis of what it means to be labeled “foreign” within one’s own nation of birth and abroad speaks profoundly to current debates on citizenship, making clear the relevance of this issue for Black people in the U.S. and abroad.”
— Meredith Miranda Gadsby Peterson, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Oberlin College, President, Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars
“In the contemporary Divided States of America, the enlightened voice of Nobel Price recipient Toni Morrison acquires ever greater urgency and relevance. Told through the lens of the author’s 2006 exhibition “The Foreigner’s Home” at the Musée du Louvre, Rian Brown and Geoff Pingree’s multilayered portrait of Morrison underscores the significance of the author’s powerful admonition of violence and oppression perpetrated against the weak and the marginalized. Utilizing Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa as a central visual device (which they ingeniously liken to today’s vessels overflowing with migrants seeking peace in a new land), the directors weave together interviews, archival footage, and breathtaking hand-painted animations to create a stunning account of a world in peril and a brilliant mind who tried to warn us. ”
— Alberto Zambenedetti, Department of Italian Studies, Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto
“Magical is one word that kept coming to mind when I watched ’The Foreigner’s Home’. And it’s magic that comes from your astute and imaginative regard for the form of your art. I am most impressed by the way you bring so many different layers of meaning and layers of consciousness in support of your subject, and the way that the imagery — animated and real life — never strays far from the notion of the foreigner’s home in deep and abiding ways, as it is in the best work of your subject, Toni Morrison. Intentionally not a biopic, this film nevertheless provides new insights into the mind and writing of one of our most important story-tellers.”
— Bruce Weigl, Author and Poet. Weigl has won numerous awards for his work, including the Robert Creeley Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Poet’s Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and two Pushcart Prizes. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Yaddo Foundation.
“‘The Foreigner’s Home’ is a moving, lyrical meditation on a central theme of Toni’ Morrison’s work, the dilemma of alienness in familiar spaces. Like the larger body of Morrison’s work, ‘The Foreigner’s Home’ deeply articulates Morrison’s insights into the challenges and possibilities of what it means to be human in the whirl of history.”
— Charles F. Peterson, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Oberlin College Author of DuBois, Fanon, Cabral: The Margins of Anti-Colonial Leadership (Lexington Books, 2007)
“Ms. Morrison’s compelling insights into race, class, violence, the power of language, and the necessity of art are illustrated and illuminated by this incredibly beautiful, perfectly-paced, and deeply moving work. The whole time I was watching it I was thinking ‘this needs to be seen now now NOW.”
— Chris Seibert, performer, director, educator and playwright, Cleveland Public Theatre
