The Multimedia Show

A mind-shattering experience

Shown in 311 American colleges for packed audiences. 

Student Activities often spend thousands of dollars to bring famous speakers to campus – only to find that 50-100 students show up….
 ……American Pictures is known for standing-room-only crowds. Even the tenth show at Harvard drew 700 people. The third show at U.C. Davis drew 2000. Students who miss it often drive hundreds of miles to see it on other campuses.

‘Guaranteed to assault the sensibilities of most Americans’
Humanity and Society

No program today presents the growing minority crisis in America so visually and with such lasting impact.

An Experiment in Oppression

The show reveals the psychological costs of racism on both the black and white mind. But it is not only a “show” about the victims of racism, it is also an experiment in oppression.
The technique of the show is to incessantly bombard the audience with a one-sided view from the position of the black underclass, a view in sharp contrast to the Horatio Alger myth.

There is no opportunity for rationalization or justification. A form of oppression ensues that gradually breaks down the audience’s defenses. It effectively creates a momentary role reversal, allowing the astonished students to actually experience the emotions that blacks often suffer in everyday white society. This paves the way for whites to begin to identify with and understand black reactions.

The Welfare State ….or the Lack of it

An important thrust both in the show and discussion groups concerns institutionalized poverty, fear and insecurity. As an outsider having grown up in a European welfare state Jacob Holdt challenges established American thought patterns by demonstrating the enormous financial and human costs of life without cradle-to-grave security. 

Despite the fact that the countries with the greatest economic equality – such as Denmark, Sweden and Japan – achieved the highest growth rates during the last century, American thinking is permeated with notions of the capitalist welfare state “destroying people’s incentive,” giving “hand outs from above” or even leading to suicide. 

In the search for solutions it is vital that students at least are informed about alternatives. Also business, medical and law schools have consequently found it important to challenge their students with the show.