Evidence

“Evidence” is a personal and politically charged film by experimental filmmaker Lee Ann Schmitt, exposing the infiltration of the Olon Corporation into the US education system and its long-standing influence in promoting conservative ideologies. In an essayistic style, the director presents evidence of this gradual, subtle process—from the funding of conservative literature to the establishment of charitable foundations—and reveals how it has shaped today’s attitudes toward family, child-rearing, women’s rights, and bodily autonomy. Schmitt combines 16 mm footage with personal memories, showing that ideology is not abstract: it permeates bodies, homes, and communities.

This film goes beyond the US: by precisely tracing funding sources, the director exposes the mechanism itself – how, with patience, interest groups shape public opinion and everyday choices over time. Today, with dangerous anti-state, pro-Russian influences becoming increasingly prominent in Lithuania, a detailed deconstruction of such mechanisms is becoming particularly important. – Programmer Ona Kotryna Dikavičiūtė

Lee Anne Schmitt

Lee Anne Schmitt is an essay filmmaker. Her projects have addressed American exceptionalism, the logic of utility and labour, gestures of kindness and refusal, and the history of racial violence in the United States. Her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Viennale, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel, FICUNAM, FIDMarseilles, DocLisboa and many more.