A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone

Engaging 73-year-old artist Edythe Boone is at the center of this documentary from Marlene “Mo” Morris that focuses on Boone's life and career as well as two of her current mural projects: one with students at West Oakland Middle School and another for senior citizens in Richmond, CA. Inspired by her creative seamstress grandmother and raised in a Jewish foster home, Edythe later balanced raising her children with attending art school in NYC, eventually settling down around the art haven of Berkeley. Interweaving archival footage of the activist artist at work, A New Color alternates between the two mural groups of excited participants, following each through the brainstorming, research, and execution stages of the projects, although a pall is cast when a classmate is hurt (“Kenny got shot 10 times on Sunday”) and with Boone learning of the widely-publicized death of her nephew Eric Garner. An interesting slice-of-life portrait of an inspiring activist and educator whose medium is art, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Williams-Wood)