White Balls on Walls 2022
Distributed by Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Frank Van Den Engel and Julia Van Schieveen
Directed by Sarah Vos
Streaming, 90 mins
High School - General Adult
Art history; Diversity; Museums
Date Entered: 06/26/2023
Reviewed by Jasmine Smith, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Alvernia UniversityWhite Balls on Walls is highly recommended for students and professionals, high school through adult, who engage with the arts, public history, cultural institutions, diversity initiatives, or government regulation of those areas.
The Stedelijk, Amsterdam’s Museum of Modern Art, and its director and staff are the focus of the film. The Stedelijk’s work towards increased diversity serves as a case study of a museum facing the questions and challenges that many museums in North America and Europe are confronting: what constitutes canon, and whose voices are included in the curation process? It takes a direct look at how a collective decision to make the museum more diverse can have a ripple effect, bringing up questions about institutional language, hiring, collecting, and exhibiting - from the overall strategy down to the small details. While the museum in this documentary is focused on the Western canon and decolonizing, the underlying questions can be useful food for thought everywhere minority groups are underrepresented in the public cultural narrative.
The reason that White Balls on Walls explores this topic so successfully is its commitment to showing the full story. The museum’s successes and setbacks are included. The awkwardness of some conversations is as palpable to the viewer as it is to those on screen, while even small successes are shared in enough detail to inform the viewer how to accomplish similar outcomes. The run time is appropriate to examining the topic in detail while maintaining good pacing. The film and the Stedelijk do not claim to have all the answers, and some issues are left unresolved, but the viewer sees a model for thinking through institutional diversity issues. Beginning those conversations is a vital first step, and this film can help student and professional viewers start the discussion.
Awards: CPH:DOX 2023; Millenium Docs Against Gravity 2023; Nominated for IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film - IDFA 2022
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