Watch Trailer For ‘Caterpillar,’ Eye-Opening Doc From Liza Mandelup

EXCLUSIVE: In 1985, the Pogues released a song called “A Pair of Brown Eyes.” A few years earlier, Christine McVie wrote and voiced the Fleetwood Mac tune “Brown Eyes,” and of course in 1967 Van Morrison sang lovingly of an alluring “Brown-Eyed Girl.”

But by today’s social media-driven beauty standards, apparently brown eyes don’t cut it. Director Liza Mandelup’s documentary Caterpillar explores the dangerous extremes some people are willing to go to in the quest to – as the Crystal Gayle song put it – make their brown eyes blue (or green or some other shade). Good Deed Entertainment (GDE) will release the award-winning film in theaters beginning Friday, November 7 in New York City at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film.

We have your first look at the film in the trailer above. The documentary’s central figure is a young man so unhappy with his brown eye color that he’s willing to go under the knife to change it.

“Endlessly struggling to feel seen, David Taylor becomes infatuated with a mysterious company’s promise to transform people’s lives by permanently changing the color of their eyes,” notes a synopsis. “After traveling to India to get the controversial procedure, he begins to question if this artificial beauty will give him the fulfillment he truly seeks.”

This is Mandelup’s follow up to the acclaimed feature documentary Jawline (2019) which examined standards of male beauty and self-presentation (and self-marketing) in the social media age. Caterpillar premiered at SXSW and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the Nashville Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary at the Denver Film Festival.

“I am thrilled to be working with Good Deed Entertainment to get this film out to the world,” Mandelup said in a statement. “Audiences at our film festival screenings have responded to David Taylor’s moving story. I am beyond excited to collaborate with a team that so clearly values original storytelling. I can’t wait for the world to see this film!”

Erik Donley, head of Acquisitions & Distribution, Good Deed Entertainment & Cranked Up Films, commented, “GDE is honored to partner with Liza Mandelup to bring Caterpillar to audiences worldwide, a film that affirms her gift for capturing cultural stories before they enter the mainstream. Caterpillar is a film you’ll want to watch again and again – I’m certain of that.”

Caterpillar enjoys a 100 percent critics ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is directed by Liza Mandelup and produced by Jay Van Hoy, Matthew Cherchio, and Mandelup. Executive producers include Michael Cho, Mimi Rode, Tim Lee, Maria Zuckerman, Christine Connor, Ryan Heller, Michael Bloom, Bryn Mooser, and Kathryn Everett. Cinematography is by Benjamin Whatley; Alex O’Flinn edited the film. Palmbomen II composed the music.

GDE, distributor of the Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated animated feature film Loving Vincent, is an Ohio-based independent studio “dedicated to producing, financing and distributing quality entertainment for film, television, the worldwide web and tomorrow’s anticipated platforms.” Through its genre division, Cranked Up Films, GDE develops, produces, and distributes high concept horror, grounded sci-fi and speculative fiction. GDE’s releases in 2025 include the drama Looking Through Water directed by Roberto Sneider and starring David Morse and Michael Douglas, and Temple Grandin: An Open Door, John Barnhardt’s feature documentary about the famed scholar, inventor and advocate for people with autism.

Watch the trailer for Caterpillar above.