Screenings

Synopsis

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.

Director

Lee Anne Schmitt

Biography

Lee Anne Schmitt is a Los Angeles- based filmmaker and artist whose work weaves together political thought, personal experience, and landscape. With her eassy films such as CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN, PURGE THIS LAND, and her latest film EVIDENCE, she examines themes including American exceptionalism, labor and utility, gestures of kindness and refusal, and the traces of political systems left on objects and landscapes.
Her work has been presented at MoMA New York, the Getty Museum, the Centre Pompidou, and at festivals including the Viennale, CPH:DOX, Oberhausen, Rotterdam, and FID Marseilles. Schmitt is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as awards from the Graham Foundation and Creative Capital.

Filmography

Selection: California Company Town (2008), The Last Buffalo Hunt (2012), Purge This Land (2018), Farnsworth Scores (2019), Cry Love (2024), Evidence (2025)