Documentaries

THE “ANGRY EYE” THE BROWN-EYE BLUE-EYE EXPERIMENT

Author:   Jane Elliott

THE ANGRY EYE skillfully interweaves the young adults in the exercise with post-session interviews that show the participants struggling to come to terms with their recent experiences. Through the intense and often painful emotions that the exercise provokes shines a hope that, someday, we will overcome the capricious lines that divide us – if only we can learn to accept and appreciate our differences.

 

PART TWO

 

 

UNPACKING THE INVISIBLE BACKPACK

Author:   Peggy McIntosh

A six-minute video by Peggy McIntosh, telling the story of her own transformation including 50 ways she has benefited from white privilege.

 

 

Speakers for the Dead

Author: Jennifer Holness, David Sutherland
Provided by National Film Board of Canada / Office national du film du Canada

This documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments–including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate–add to the film’s emotional intensity.

In the Shadow of Gold Mountain

Author: Karen Cho
Provided by National Film Board of Canada

Filmmaker Karen Cho travels from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover stories from the last survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, a set of laws imposed to single out the Chinese as unwanted immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1947. Through a combination of history, poetry and raw emotion, this documentary sheds light on an era that shaped the identity of generations.

 

RACE- THE POWER OF ILLUSION

Author:   Newsreel

Clip. An eye-opening three-part series confronting our myths and misconceptions about race through the distinct lenses of science, history and social institutions.

 

FAIR OR NOT?: THE SNOW WHITE COMPLEX

Author: M. Hasna M

“Fair or Not?: The Snow White Complex” is a documentary about Eurocentric standards of female beauty that are held across most (post-Colonial) cultures.

 

SHADEISM

Author:  Nayani Thiyagarajah

This documentary short is an introduction to the issue of shadeism, the discrimination that exists between the lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. This documentary short looks specifically at how it affects young womyn within the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas. Through the eyes and words of 5 young womyn and 1 little girl – all females of colour – the film takes us into the thoughts and experiences of each. Overall, ‘Shadeism’ explores where shadeism comes from, how it directly affects us as womyn of colour, and ultimately, begins to explore how we can move forward through dialogue and discussion.

 Below links courtesy of unfaircampaign.org:

Eyes on the Prize

Eyes on the Prize is an award-winning, 14-hour television series produced by Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond. Through contemporary interviews and historical footage, the series covers all of the major events of the civil rights movement from 1954-1985 including the Montgomery bus boycott in 1954, Voting Rights Act in 1965, and  ”Black Power” in the streets. MORE >>>

A Class Divided by Jane Elliot

(Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise)

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise. This now famous exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being in a minority. MORE >>>

Doll Test

During the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth Bancroft Clark and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, designed a test to study the psychological effects of segregation on black children.

In the “doll test,” they used four plastic, diaper-clad dolls – identical except for color. They showed the dolls to black children between the ages of three and seven and asked them questions to determine racial perception and preference. Almost all of the children readily identified the race of the dolls. However, when asked which they preferred, the majority selected the white doll and attributed positive characteristics to it. MORE >>>

A Girl Like Me

Film director Kiri Davis conducts Dr. Kenneth Clark’s “doll test,” which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education.  She conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in her high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image.  This film sheds new light on how society affects black children today and how little has actually changed.MORE >>>

Dark Girls:  Preview

View clips from the upcoming documentary exploring the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color – particularly dark-skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture.MORE >>>

Project Implicit

Project Implicit blends basic research and educational outreach in a virtual laboratory at which visitors can examine their own hidden biases. Project Implicit is the product of research by three scientists whose work produced a new approach to understanding of attitudes, biases, and stereotypes. MORE>>>

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