Calendar – Past Event

Tribeca Cinemas Doc Series Presents: Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story
Directed by Lee Storey; Produced by Bari Pearlman
Monday, May 25th @ 7:30 pm, 54 Varick Street
Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story explores the clean-cut, smile-drenched singing phenomenon Up With People. Since 1965, this peppy youth group has sung to 20 million people worldwide, performed at four Superbowl halftime shows, and been parodied on The Simpsons and South Park. Talent was not required of its members, just a common enthusiastic vision to change the world one squeaky-clean song at a time. But its cheery façade concealed the more complicated reality of an organization founded on conservative American ideals and cult-like utopian ideology. Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story is an alumnus of the 2008 Independent Filmmaker Labs.