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“No other field is closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”

— Elizabeth Catlett, 1973


This 57 min documentary on the inspiring life of Elizabeth Catlett, sculptor, printmaker, educator and social activist, was created with film footage and audio recordings of Catlett, interviews with experts in the arts, humanities and friends who knew her personally. Catlett’s story covers her upbringing and education in Washington DC, her college years at the University of Iowa (where she was the first visual arts student in the United States to receive a Master of Fine Art degree), and her dawning activism to her life as an artist/educator in Mexico. Catlett’s socially and politically charged prints and sculptures and her activism put her at odds with the U.S. government, which led her to citizenship in Mexico, where she joined the Taller de Graphica Populara in Mexico City. There she established a new home and further developed her unique work, the continued to rise as an internationally renowned artist and educator placing Elizabeth Catlett at the forefront of the art world. ​