A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
October 9, 2019
Original Title:
Becoming Black
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Kobalt Productions
ZDF
Production Countries:
Germany
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 91
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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Cinematography:
Sebastian Winkels
Anne Misselwitz
Director:
Ines Johnson-Spain
Dramaturgy:
Claudia Landsberger
Editor:
Yana Höhnerbach
Executive Producer:
Katrin Sandmann
Stefan Mathieu
Music:
Jean-Paul Bourelly
Producer:
Anahita Nazemi
Sound:
Corneille Houssou
Ulla Kösterke
Manuela Schininá
Sound Designer:
Brooke Trezise
Writer:
Ines Johnson-Spain
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