Becoming Black

Streaming video - 2019

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 ident...ity, social norms and family ties, viewed from a very personal perspective.

Saved in:
Subjects
Genres
Documentary films
Published
[San Francisco, California, USA] : Juno Films 2019.
2021.
Language
German
Other Authors
Ines Johnson-Spain (film director)
Online Access
A Kanopy streaming video
Cover Image
Item Description
Title from title frames.
Film
In Process Record.
Physical Description
1 online resource (streaming video file) (91 minutes): digital, .flv file, sound
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).