Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Constance Marks and narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, it follows the man whose hands the whole world knows — and whose face almost nobody does.

Kevin Clash grew up in working-class Baltimore, sewing puppets out of the lining of his father's coat. He had one goal: to work alongside Jim Henson. He got there, and became the voice and the heartbeat of Elmo, the little red monster on Sesame Street that raised a few generations of kids. Along the way you meet Frank Oz, Rosie O'Donnell and Cheryl Henson, plus rare archival footage from inside the Henson Workshop.

What hooks you isn't Elmo — it's the boy behind him, who simply refused to accept that a Black kid from Baltimore had no place in the puppetry world. Quiet, warm, and disarming, it's for anyone who loves backstage stories and dreams that actually came true. Stream Being Elmo (2011) online on iFILM.