Who IS the foreigner? Am I the foreigner in my own home? Who decides? Such were the questions posed by renowned author Toni Morrison at her 2006 guest-curated exhibit at the Louvre, "The Foreigner's Home". There she invited several renowned artists whose work also dealt with the experience of cultural and social displacement to join her in a public discussion that Morrison herself had been pursuing through her own research and writing.
This film expands that discussion by integrating exclusive footage of the Nobel Laureate in dialogue with artists in 2006 with a sit-down conversation in her own home with fellow writer Edwidge Danticat in 2015. The film also draws on extensive archival film footage, musical performances, and animation to frame a series of candid exchanges about race, identity, and art's redemptive power. In this way, The Foreigner's Home explores the idea of "foreignness" and highlights art's crucial role in both understanding and addressing the increasingly urgent problems that surround it.
"A compelling and poetic film that explores two central concepts in Toni Morrison's work; the foreigner and the home...Eloquently poses fundamental questions of our time: Who is the foreigner? How long does a foreigner remain a foreigner? Who decides what is the relationship between houselessness (lacking lodging) and homelessness (existential or politically imposed unbelonging)? Throughout the film, Toni Morrison's words and visions engage us into a conversation which is vital to understanding: 'what does it mean to be human?'" — Professor Shahram Khosravi, Anthropology Book Forum
"An intriguing glimpse into Morrison's intellectual and artistic vision and how art can elicit powerful conversations about the human condition." — Library Journal
"Offers plentiful food for thought about the relationship between art and politics, belonging and estrangement." — Video Librarian
"The film is beautifully done and (surprisingly) au courant" — Toni Morrison
"This alternately harrowing and inspiring film fuses recordings from [Toni Morrison's 2006 guest-curated Louvre exhibit] with hauntingly beautiful animation, archival materieals representing a troubled global history of inequity, and a new interview with Morrison, who is, as always, wise and incisive." — Miami Film Festival
"The film is a provocative and timely meditation on race, identity, foreignness, and the redemptive power of art." — Ashland Independent Film Festival
"The words are straightforward, but the haunting music, animated scenes, and the logic of poetry reach unquestionable peaks of deep emotion." — Miguel Pendás, Filmfest DC
"An exploration of race, immigration, and othering a people, via a conversation between authors Edweidge Danticat and Toni Morrison...This is a great sister piece to Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro: both deal with the world of art, race, and the history/reality of the United States" — The Wolves of Little Havana
"The Foreigner's Home is unique in its focus on Ms. Morrison's curated exhibition at The Louvre. [Her] 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 US and abroad." — Meredith Miranda Gadsby Peterson, Assoc Prof of Africana Studies, Oberlin College
"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 marginalized...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, Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto
"Ms. Morrison's compelling insights into race, class, violence, the power of language, and teh necessity of art are illustrated and illuminated by this incredibly beautiful, perfectly-paced, and deeply moving work." — Chris Seibert, Cleveland Public Theatre
Citation
Main credits
Morrison, Toni (on-screen participant)
Brown, Rian (film producer)
Brown, Rian (film director)
Pingree, Geoffrey B. (film producer)
Pingree, Geoffrey B. (film director)
Pingree, Geoffrey B. (screenwriter)
Morrison, Ford (film producer)
Other credits
Music, Jay Ashby, Peter V. Swendsen; editing, Rian Brown, Geoff Pingree, Yari Wolinsky; animator, Rian Brown; cinematography, Ford Morrison.
