PURGE THIS LAND

PURGE THIS LAND is an essay film centered around the legacy of the radical abolitionist John Brown. The title is taken from John Brown’s letter of 1859: “I am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” The history of racism and slavery in modern America is retold in a film, which spans from the1850’s to present-day USA and in the systemic violence that black Americans are still subjected to. John Brown – a white, militant activist – was sentenced to death in 1859 for a failed attempt to start an armed revolu-tion. His story is a prism, through which the contemporary artist Lee Anne Schmitt’s beautiful and thought-provoking film takes a clear and sober look at the dark side of American history. The past is never dead, it is not even the past, as Faulkner wrote. (Copenhagen Documentary Festival)

LEE ANNE SCHMITT, USA, 2017, DOCUMENTARIES, 80MIN, OV