The Documentary Dark Girls, produced and co-directed byBill Duke which premiered last night at the Ryerson Theater as part of the TIFF /Festival (Toronto International Film Festival.) The film does not yet have a distributor, but that did not stop the film from being broadcast to a full house at the venue.
The topic of Dark Girls is one that every African, Afro-American, Afro-Caribbean and person of African decent has been forced to deal with, whether light skin or dark skin. Not only those of African decent but Asians, Indians and people of all nations. White people, have also had to deal with the dark girl complex though a much tamer watered down version and slightly askew-ed.
This documentary has open once again the can-of-worms dealing with Colorism and forces us, all of us, to unpack the baggage that comes with have complexions that literally range from white to what is sometimes joked as blue-black.
The instance of self loathing that has been associated with colonization and the layers and layers of oppression by white ‘masters’ have been finally adequately summarized by one of the featured psychologist (Cheryl Tawede Grills, Ph.D.) in the movie. Her visual description was stunningly on point and expressed aptly what has been taking place to the black/colored psyche since the 16th century.
If nothing else this movie brings life to the conversation that still needs to take place among us as a people, and to the nay-sayers: How do you dedicate 240something years to the enslavement of a people and expect that over the course of 40years erase what has taken place and tell people “just get over it”?
The directors are working on other projects one of particular interest is the conversation Dark Boys
For more info http://officialdarkgirlsmovie.com/
About Author: Khamal Murray is a major in Bioethics & Heath Studies at the University of Toronto and a blogger/writer with http://thejuxtapositionape.blog.com and a special contributor with Alternavox Magazine