Who Are Parents Are People 2006, Video/16mm, 5 minutes

"Who Are Parents are People" is a manual remix of the "Parents are People" section of Free To Be...You and Me, mashing up early-1970s family representations--from the American Family documentary series, to After School Specials, to snippets of a song by The Shaggs, to vocational and educational films--to form a critique of post-Spock parenting.

The Free To Be... You and Me Invitational was inspired by a Brooklyn film artist's discovery of multiple 16mm copies of the celebrated Marlo Thomas's Free To Be...You and Me (1974) in his collection.

More than twenty film and video artists were invited to rework, restage, respond to, satirize, criticize, or in
their own way create short works inspired by the original's all-too-memorable segments, including "It's All Right to Cry," "William Wants a Doll," "Ladies First," and "Parents Are People."

Recognized as an important cultural document of the shift in values our country experienced during the 1970s, Free To Be...You and Me (originally a book and concept album) stirred conversation among people of all ages on hitherto unspoken issues like divorce, media awareness, and, maybe most cohesively, the identity politics of gender and race. In light of how such conversations have evolved into the 21st century, including more sophisticated global perspectives, issues of sexuality, and how the rhetoric of "freedom" has taken on new resonance within our current state of affairs.

Conceived by Erik Z and Nick Hallett. Curated by Thomas Beard, originally for Ocularis.

Artists & works include: Free To Be You and Me (Darrin Martin); Boy Meets Girl (Joshua Thorson); When We Grow Up (Laura Parnes); Parents Are People (Cortlund and Halperin); Housework (Seth Kirby); Helping (Spencer Parsons); Don't Dress Your Cat in an Apron (Jennifer Matotek); Ladies First (Ximena Cuevas); Dudley Pippin (Kent Lambert); It's All Right to Cry (Mighty Robot); My Dog Is a Plumber (Stephanie Gray and Kelly Spivey); William's Doll (Peggy Ahwesh); Atalanta (Lynne Sachs); I'd Rather Be the Sun (Michael Gitlin and Jacqueline Goss); Marlo Thomas Talking with Kids About Their Siblings (Nao Bustamante); Sisters and Brothers (Ben Coonley); Three Wishes (Big Noise Films); Girl Land (Bradley Eros); Circle of Friends (Tyler Coburn); Free To Be You and Me--Reprise (Ray Sweeten)