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The Rainbow Man/John 3:16
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The Rainbow Man/John 3:16
IDFA 1997

The Rainbow Man/John 3:16

Free History Project
United States
1997
41 min
Festival history

In the late seventies Rollen Frederick Stewart became a national TV celebrity in America. He was the man who could be seen at thousands of sports events with a rainbow-coloured Afro wig. Later he mainly appeared on screen as a reborn Christian, brandishing a plate with the inscription ‘John 3:16’, referring to the biblical passage. Illustrated by interviews, home movies, found footage, archive footage of Stewart‘s ‘TV appearances’ and passages from his autobiography, this directing debut of Sam Green tells the tragic life story of ‘The Rainbow Man’ or ‘John 3:16’. His permanent presence in the media became such an obsession for Stewart, that he took a woman hostage in 1992 and demanded three hours of broadcasting time to announce the end of the world. He is currently serving his sentence in a Los Angeles prison: three times life imprisonment. A parable about the pressure cooker of continuous media events that America is, and how an individual can simply blow himself up in it.

Credits
Director
    Free History Project
    Free History Project