''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision'' is a 1994 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

made by Freida Lee Mock. It explores the life of American artist

Maya Lin Maya Ying Lin (born October 5, 1959) is an American designer and sculptor. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memoria ...

, whose best-known work is the

Vietnam Veterans Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The film won the 1994

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

. While a number of movie critics objected to it receiving this award, ''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision'' met with mostly positive reviews, garnering praise for its look at the controversy surrounding the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design and Lin's growth as an artist.

Reception

Accolades

The film won the 1994

. It later aired on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series '' POV''. The award was mired in controversy as acclaimed films such as ''

Hoop Dreams ''Hoop Dreams'' is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates an ...

'' failed to receive a nomination. Film critic Roger Ebert also suggested that the nomination of ''Maya Lin'' stemmed from

cronyism Cronyism is the spoils system practice of Impartiality, partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs ...

, since Mock was the chair of the committee which makes the nominations (though she stepped aside for the year that ''Maya Lin'' was under consideration), and was thus close friends with many of the committee members. Mock denied that the nomination in any way stemmed from cronyism and hired an attorney to respond to the press criticism. Ebert and his associate Gene Siskel publicly apologized to Mock after seeing ''Maya Lin'', with Ebert saying "I think it's a good film and deserved to be nominated.", but other prominent critics such as

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

maintained that while ''Maya Lin'' was a good film it was clearly outshone by documentaries such as ''Hoop Dreams'' and '' Crumb'' which were passed up for nomination.

Reviews

Roger Ebert, despite his earlier outrage over ''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision'' being nominated for an Academy Award, admitted in his review for the film that "It was not the best documentary of the year, but it is a valuable document. If you have been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, you will want to see it. If you have not, it will make you want to go." He applauded the scenes showing Maya Lin's struggle against opponents of her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as "arresting" and "illuminating", though he criticized the film for not exploring Lin's private life. He gave it three out of four stars. Writing in ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'', Alison Macor agreed with Ebert that the Academy Award controversy "may have obscured what is a powerful, inspiring account of a supremely talented woman's professional transformation from a 20-year-old undergraduate architectural student at Yale to an accomplished and renowned architect and sculptor." Particularly praising Maya Lin's recount of her mixed feelings over winning the memorial design competition and the resulting controversy, and the way the film shows insight into Lin's design philosophy, she gave ''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision'' three-and-a-half out of five stars.

References

External links

*
''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision''
at the American Film Foundation
''Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision''
at '' POV'' {{AcademyAwardBestDocumentaryFeature1981-2000 1994 films American documentary films Films directed by Freida Lee Mock Films scored by Charles Bernstein Documentary films about Asian Americans POV (TV series) films Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Vietnam Veterans Memorial Documentary films about visual artists Women and death 1990s English-language films 1990s American films