A witty satire about cultural stereotyping. In a series of 1992 performances, Coco Fusco and performance co-creator Guillermo Gómez-Peña decked themselves out in primitive costumes and appeared before the public as "undiscovered AmerIndians" locked in a golden cage - an exercise in faux anthropology based on racist images of natives. Presented eight times in four different countries, these simple performances evoked various responses, the most startling being the huge numbers of people who didn't find the idea of "natives" locked in a cage objectionable. This provocative video, directed and produced by Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia, suggests that the "primitive" is nothing more than a construction of the West, and uses comic fiction to address historical truths and tragedies.

The Couple in the Cage

Documentary that follows a group of Brooklyn youth as they work to create a wall mural that commemorates the shift from enslavement to the Civil Rights Movement. The youth seen in the film are participants in the Youth and Congregations in Partnership (YCP), and Gender-Responsive Re-Entry Assistance Support Program (GRASP), under the office of the Kings County District Attorney. The history of slaves is discussed by distinguished professors and historians, beginning with the development of Colonial America and the slave trade. As the title suggests, the legal system is introduced in the film as the youth and professors explore the laws imposed on slaves.