For nearly two decades, John Gianvito has been carving out a unique space in American cinema with passion projects of expansive shape and political ambition, including The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussei..
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For nearly two decades, John Gianvito has been carving out a unique space in American cinema with passion projects of expansive shape and political ambition, including The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein, a documentary-fiction inquiry into the human toll of the Gulf War, and Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, a becalmed yet radical Howard Zinn–inspired reflection on American progressivism. In his new film, Gianvito meditates on a particular moment in early 20th-century history: when Helen Keller began speaking out passionately on behalf of progressive causes. Beginning in 1913, when, at age 32, Keller gave her first public talk before a general audience, Her Socialist Smile is constructed of onscreen text taken from Keller’s speeches, impressionistic images of nature, and newly recorded voiceover by poet Carolyn Forché. The film is a rousing reminder that Keller’s undaunted activism for labor rights, pacifism, and women’s suffrage was philosophically inseparable from her battles for the rights of the disabled.
Author, activist, lecturer, and crusader for those with disabilities, the extraordinary Helen Keller was unable to see or hear, yet through hard work became highly accomplished and famously outspoken. Her autobiography The Story of My Life and its dramatic adaptation The Miracle Worker made Keller's name a household word. John Gianvito's new film Her Socialist Smile is a spare, pure, and beautifully composed account of her political life as a supporter of progressive causes. Incorporating footage of her home life, her surroundings, and her teacher Anne Sullivan, the film's focal point shifts to Keller's own words-her many speeches-as she ardently advocates on behalf of the causes in which she so firmly believed.