Becoming Black
Ines Johnson-SpainImagine that your parents are white but your skin colour is dark and they tell you that ‘s pure coincidence. This is what happened to a girl in East Berlin in the 1960s. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Here the East German woman Sigrid falls in love with Lucien from Togo and gets pregnant. But she is already married to Armin. The child is filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. Meeting her stepfather Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents and the surroundings had developed. In an intimate portrayal but also critical exploration she brings together painful and confusing childhood memories with matter-of-fact accounts that testify a culture of rejection and tight-lipped denial. Yet, the movingly warm encounters with her Togolese family develop Becoming Black also into a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, seen from a very personal perspective.
Unavailable in theaters
Available at home
Rent or Buy
Becoming Black (2019)
Trailer
Synopsis
Imagine that your parents are white but your skin colour is dark and they tell you that ‘s pure coincidence. This is what happened to a girl in East Berlin in the 1960s. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Here the East German woman Sigrid falls in love with Lucien from Togo and gets pregnant. But she is already married to Armin. The child is filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. Meeting her stepfather Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents and the surroundings had developed. In an intimate portrayal but also critical exploration she brings together painful and confusing childhood memories with matter-of-fact accounts that testify a culture of rejection and tight-lipped denial. Yet, the movingly warm encounters with her Togolese family develop Becoming Black also into a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, seen from a very personal perspective.
Data sheet
Where to watch?
Unavailable in theaters
Available at home
Ad
Documentary
Mangueira em 2 Tempos
After almost thirty years, 'Mangueira em 2 Tempos' revisits childhood friends portrayed in the video “Mangueira do tomorrow”, about the junior samba school.
Treasure Island
A summer on a leisure island in the Paris region. Land of adventure, drag and transgression for some, place of refuge and escape for others. From its fee-paying beach to its hidden recesses, the exploration of a kingdom of childhood, resonating with the tumults of the world.
