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Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film
Triple film feature exploring skin whitening within Mexican and South Asian cultures
Wednesday, Oct 22
from
07:00 pm
to
08:30 pm
Hitchcock Multipurpose Room
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White Like the Moon
The short films, Unbearable Whiteness of Being, White Like the Moon, and A Darker Side of Fair, explore the topic of skin whitening.
The Unbearable Whiteness of Being, a short film that documents sibling entrepreneurs who travel to the U.K.’s largest South Asian lifestyle tradeshow to find a distributor for NUR 76, a skin lightening cream. The film, an eye-opening look at South Asians desire for fairer complexions, sparks dialogue in reference to meeting consumer demand versus reinforcing racial stereotypes.
White Like the Moon, a short film about a Mexican-American girl's struggle for identity, as her overbearing mother forces her to bleach her skin white in order to fit into “Anglo” society in 1950s Texas.
A Darker Side of Fair, sheds new light upon issues of global diversity, this documentary focuses on the extent to which a "fairness fetish" has permeated various levels of Indian society. Today in India fairness is a benchmark for beauty; marriages are decided on the basis of skin color; and fair means "lucky" whereas dark means "ugly". This film addresses the historical and contemporary factors that contribute to the pressures thrust upon Indian women by a society obsessed with fair skin.
About the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film
This fall's festival theme, Post Racial Nation? or Permanence of a Racial State, includes films that highlight contemporary and historical assumptions, beliefs and traditions regarding race, skin color and cultural identity.