Light Girls

Jan 19, 2015

1h 24m

★ 10.0

Overview

From the creator and director of the critically acclaimed documentary Dark Girls, award-winning filmmaker Bill Duke continues the conversation on colorism with Light Girls. Sharing the untold stories and experiences of lighter-skinned women, Light Girls dives deep into the discussion of skin color, preference, privilege, pain and prejudice. The documentary features interviews with Russell Simmons, Soledad O'Brien, Diahann Carroll, India Arie, Iyanla Vanzant, Michaela Angela Davis, Kym Whitley, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and more.

Genres

Documentary

History

Light Girls Trailers

Cast

Self

Raven-Symoné

Self

Kym Whitley

Self

Iyanla Vanzant

Self

Essence Atkins

Self

Diahann Carroll

Self

Keke Wyatt

Self

Rolonda Watts

Self

Tatyana Ali

Self

LisaRaye McCoy

Self

Claudia Jordan

Self

Dondré Whitfield

Self

Wayne Brady

In the 1960s, a white couple living in East Germany tells their dark-skinned child that her skin color is merely a coincidence. As a teenager, she accidentally discovers the truth. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Sigrid, an East German woman, fell in love with Lucien from Togo and became pregnant. But she was already married to Armin. The child is Togolese-East German filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. In interviews with Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents, striving for normality, developed following her birth. What sounds like fieldwork about social dislocation becomes an autobiographical essay film and a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, viewed from a very personal perspective.

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