CATERPILLAR
Join us after the screening on Oct. 29 for a Q&A with director Liza Mandelup and subject David Taylor.
Middle-aged Miami resident David feels like he’s stagnated in life. Never happy with his appearance, he’s enthralled by glossy online ads featuring testimonials from beautiful people who have had the color of their eyes surgically changed. Despite the protests of his mother, David travels to New Delhi for the surgery, where he meets a cohort of other patients who hope that having eyes in exotic shades like “jade” and “frost” will change the way the world sees them — and the way they see themselves. The procedure, which involves inserting a pigmented iris implant, is not for the faint of heart and carries an alarming list of potential side effects. The results seem to give David the newfound sense of freedom he’d been looking for, inspiring him to make a drastic life change and come to terms with aspects of his past. Yet, as director Liza Mandelup nimbly demonstrates in this equally disturbing and tender documentary, David’s eye color is only one small step in his journey to come to terms with himself.
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