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Release Date: Fall/Winter 2011
Genre: Documentary
Description: Directed by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry
Produced: Bill Duke for Duke Media and D. Channsin Berry for Urban Winter Entertainment
Co-Produced: Bradinn French
Line Produced: Cheryl L. Bedford
Edited: Bradinn French
New Media Managed: Tatiana El-Khouri
Publicist: Margaret R. Jamison
Plot Outline: A bracing new documentary, "Dark Girls" delves beneath the skins of women darker than most and the separate lives they lead.
Film Premier: International Black Film Festival in Nashville in October
May 20, 2011 – Los Angeles: Has anything really changed since the days of American slavery when dark-skinned Blacks were made to suffer even greater indignities than their lighter skinned counterparts? Ask today’s dark Black woman.
Dual documentary Directors/Producers D. Channsin Berry (Urban Winter Entertainment) and Bill Duke (Duke Media) took their cameras into everyday America in search of pointed, unfiltered, and penetrating interviews with Black women of the darkest hues for their emotional expose’, "Dark Girls". Two years in the making and slated to premier down south at the International Black Film Festival in October in Nashville, "Dark Girls" pulls back our country’s curtain to reveal that the deep seated biases and hatreds of racism, within and outside of the Black American culture, remain bitterly entrenched.
Berry states of the film's origin, "When Bill called me with the idea of a documentary about dark-skinned women, I was in right away. Being a dark-skinned Black man, like Bill, I have gone through similar traumas. Being separated and discriminated against by our own people. It stifles your self-esteem. Bill and I shared our similar experiences and immediately understood that we knew the best way to approach this."
Duke adds, "In the late 1960s a famous psychological study was done in which a young Black girl was presented with a set of dolls. Every time she was asked to point to the one that wasn’t pretty, not smart, etc., she pointed to the Black doll that looked just like her. In her mind, she was already indoctrinated. To watch her do that was heartbreaking and infuriating. CNN did the test again recently, decades later, with little progress. As the filmmakers behind 'Dark Girls,' our goal is to take that little girl's finger off that doll."
Dark-skinned Black American women from all walks of life will be covered with a key focus trained tightly upon women struggling for upward mobility in the workplace of Corporate America. "The sickness is so crazy," Berry continues. "These ladies broke it down to the degree that dark-skinned 'sistas' with 'good' hair vs. dark-skinned women with ‘kinky’ hair were given edges when it came time for coveted promotions." Additional interviewees for "Dark Girls" include White men in loving intimate relationships with Black women that were passed over by “their own men," as well as dark-skinned women of Latin and Panamanian background to bring a world perspective to the issue of dark vs. light.
"Dark Girls," which will screen in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York following its Nashville premier, promises to be a proactive view. Berry concludes, "The skin issue is a discussion we all need to have once and for all, so we can eradicate it."
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3 comments:
I'm following this movie on Twitter, I've liked it on Facebook, and I'm doing my part to spread the word about it. As for a comment, I think the one I left on the movie's FB wall expresses my feelings, so I'll just repeat it here...
"In addition to experiencing skin-tone bias when I was growing up, I've got something else to add to the mix. I also have dark gums. Do you know how many times other Black children, as well as their parents, asked me to explain that when I was a child??? Real talk!!!"
See you at the movie...
UPDATE: For those of you who don't know, the still photo in the promotional video was originally another young lady... in fact, it was one of the young ladies who actually spoke in the preview. I now have a concern as to why the still photo was recently changed to Beyonce, so I went back to the "Dark Girls" FB page and left the following comment/question:
Q. Perhaps this is just coincidence (and tread lightly, because even that happens far too often), but can anyone tell me why the still photo on the video has been changed from the young lady who was on it to Beyonce? I do hope it wasn't for the very purpose and reason for this whole project? Help me to understand, somebody!
I am aware that you make reference to the notion that Beyonce's skin tone may have been lightened for the cosmetic commercials in the preview, but I think the young lady who was in the still photo before should remain, if that counts for anything. Even if this was a "business" decision because Beyonce is a well-known entertainer, so her face might attract more attention to the projet, it still wasn't a good move, given the nature of this movie. And, most documentaries are about "common, everyday people", so that angle doesn't belong here. It's just not necessary. As you can see from the amount of "buzz" you're getting here, a good movie can sell itself...
UPDATE 2: Believe it or not, I actually received responses to my comment/question from a couple of producers working on this movie project, Cheryl Bedford and Bradinn French. Noted below is the continued dialogue that took place between us on the "Dark Girls" FB page:
CHERYL: Rosalyn, I will check with the Editor Brandinn French today when I see him in a couple of hours. I believe because he went back and made a small change in the preview, it was changed. Not necessarily by him per se, but by the site grabbing a screen shot. But again, I will check on it today! Okay, really have to go film more footage. Take Care!
ROSALYN: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to respond, Cheryl. I do understand your time constraints and I wish all of you much success w/ the movie. I featured it on my FB page, did a blog post about it, and I'm following the movie on Twitter. It means a lot to me just to know that you will be looking into the matter. Much appreciated...
BRADINN: Rosalyn, actually the original image when this preview was released was the Beyonce image. The website generated it as a thumbnail and I kept it because most people who would be interested in this documentary are familiar with that controversy and I felt it was a strong image representative of some of the issues being discussed and people would immediately recognize our broader topic just by seeing it, even though Beyonce is generally not considered dark skinned. When I updated the preview, the thumbnail changed to the woman you are talking about for a couple hours before I reverted it to the original thumbnail for consistency and the reasons I detailed above. Some posts still have the alternative thumbnail because the links were generated while that was still up, but the original had always been the Beyonce thumbnail. I hope that answers your question and I do appreciate that even here, people are questioning what they see represented because that is an essential piece of the discourse on subjects such as this.
ROSALYN: Thank you for responding, Bradinn... I understand fully and, as I've stated before, I look forward to supporting this project and seeing the movie when it's released. Keep on doin' whatcha doin'! :)
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