Race relations movies

1. Skin (2008)

THEMES Journey of Self-Discovery Race Relations

KEYWORDS racial-tension race-relations

DIRECTED BY Anthony Fabian

COUNTRIES South Africa, UK RUN TIME107 min.

Synopsis

A dark-skinned girl born to white South African parents attempts to explore her identity in the era of apartheid as her government, her parents, and society as a whole struggle with what it means to be a black child of Caucasian descent in a nation deeply divided by race. The year is 1955. Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) has just been born to a pair of white Afrikaner parents, her brown skin and curly hair the surprising result of genetic throwback. As the government's rigid apartheid system struggles with whether to classify Sandra as white or black, the young girl and her parents gradually realize that the complications they face due to her appearance run deep and wide. Sandra lives in a society where the color of your skin determines the outcome of your life, and though she is eventually granted admission to an all-white school, she suffers endless torment from her intolerant classmates. Her father, Abraham (Sam Neill), is having a particularly difficult time accepting his daughter. Despite the fact that tests indicate he is her biological father, the neighbors constantly whisper behind their backs. And while Sandra's mother (Alice Krige) does her best to provide her daughter with understanding and emotional support, those consolations come at a high price for both mother and daughter. Her parents believe it's their daughter's birthright that she live as a white woman, though only after she grows up and falls in love with a black man will the conflicted Sandra finally find the strength to embrace her true identity as an African woman.

2. Crisis at Central High (1980)

THEME Race Relations

KEYWORDS student schoolteacher troops teenagers prejudice high-school conflict Civil-Rights court-order cross-cultural-relations Black [race] gangster

GENRES Drama Historical Film

DIRECTED BY Lamont Johnson

COUNTRIES USA RUN TIME120 min.

Synopsis

Crisis at Central High is the sort of film that fully justifies the existence of made-for-TV movies. This superior effort is a dramatization of the court-ordered integration of Little Rock, Arkansas' Central High School in 1957. With threats of violence mounting (and some carried out), it becomes necessary for the government to send in Federal troops to escort the nine black teenagers who have been chosen to break the color barriers. Covering events from the beginning of the scholastic year to the graduation exercises, the film is based on the journals of Central High teacher/administrator Elizabeth Hucksby, who is here played by Joanne Woodward. Adapted (with precisely no political axes to grind) by Richard Levinson and William Link, Crisis at Central High made its triumphant debut on February 4, 1981

3. 5 Broken Cameras (2011)

THEME Race Relations

KEYWORDS struggle Palestine

GENRES Culture & Society

CATEGORY Documentary DIRECTED BY Emad Burnat Guy Davidi

COUNTRIES France, Israel RUN TIME 90 min.

Synopsis

A Palestinian farmer who purchased a video camera to document the birth of his fourth son begins using it to record the struggle between his people and Israeli settlers, and continues to buy a new camera each time his old one is damaged in the fray. The year was 2005. Bil'in family man Emad Burnat was celebrating the birth of his fourth son Gibreel when the settlers began erecting a massive separation barrier in their village. Over the course of the next two years, Burnat alternated between documenting his son's development, and turning his camera on the peaceful protests over the controversial barrier. As the tensions swell, Burnat finds himself having to replace broken cameras with alarming frequency. This is the story of each of Burnat's cameras, and the images they captured as his friends, family, and loved ones waged a valiant struggle to preserve their way of life.

4. The Infidel (2009)

THEMES Discovering One's Heritage Race Relations

KEYWORDS Jewish Muslim identity-crisis

GENRES Comedy Black Comedy Satire

DIRECTED BY Josh Appignanesi

COUNTRIES UK RUN TIME105 min.

Synopsis

A devoted Muslim family man experiences a hilarious identity crisis after discovering that he was adopted at birth, and his real name is Solly Shimshillewitz. Mahmud Nasir (Omid Djalili) is still grieving the recent death of his mother when he finds his birth certificate, and learns he was born to a Jewish mother. In order to embrace his heritage, Mahmud seeks the advice of drunken cab-driver Lenny (Richard Schiff), whose crash course in Judaism is more quirky than kosher.

5. The Letter: An American Town and the "Somali Invasion" (2003)

THEMES Immigrant Life Race Relations

KEYWORDS: racism refugee resettlement white-supremacy Somalia peace-rally ethnic-groups diversity hate

Synopsis

In the wake of ongoing political instability in their homeland, a large number of Somalis began relocating to the United States, and 2002 a group of 1,100 former Somalis settled in the small New England town of Lewiston, MA; however, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many in Lewiston were distrustful of their new Muslim neighbors, and this unease was intensified by the fact a United States serviceman from a nearby town had lost his life in Somalia in an ugly incident that was recreated in the movie Black Hawk Down. In October 2002, simmering tensions reached the boiling point when Lewiston mayor Larry Raymond published an open letter in which he stated that Lewiston's city services were being stretched to the breaking point, and as a consequence, no more Somalis should move into the town. A number of acts of violence against the new Somali visitors followed, and in 2003, a group of white supremacists led by the neo-Nazi sect the World Church of the Creator announced their intention to stage a massive rally in Lewiston in which they would demand the Somalis leave the community. In response, some of the people of Lewiston began organizing an alternative rally to show their support for their new neighbors. The Letter: An American Town and the "Somali Invasion" is a documentary which examines the ethnic divide in Lewiston, as well as the twin rallies which illustrated both sides of the controversy.

6. A Day Without a Mexican (2004)

THEMES Class Differences Immigrant Life Race Relations Social Injustice

KEYWORDS racial-tension social-commentary social-inequality population Mexican [nationality] economy consumerism migrant Mexican-American

GENRES Comedy Satire

DIRECTED BY Sergio Arau

COUNTRIES Mexico, USA RUN TIME95 min.

Synopsis

Marking the directorial debut of Sergio Arau, son of Like Water for Chocolate director Alfonso Arau, A Day Without a Mexican ponders the potentially catastrophic results that would occur if California-based Mexicans, who make up over a third of the state's population, were to suddenly disappear. The mockumentary postulates that the lack of Latino gardeners, nannies, cooks, policeman, maids, teachers, farm workers, construction crews, entertainers, athletes, and the world's largest growing consumer market would create a social, political, and economic disaster, leaving the concept of the "California Dream" in shambles

7. Crazy/beautiful (2001)

THEMES Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance Class Differences Dysfunctional Families Kids in Trouble Teen Angst Race Relations

KEYWORDS self-destruction forbidden-love interracial obsession high-school depression

GENRES Drama Romance

DIRECTED BY John Stockwell

COUNTRIES USA RUN TIME 99 min.

Synopsis

The Romeo and Juliet story has been modernized to a high school setting previously, but this romance from director John Stockwell turns the tale inside out. Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison). When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper. Crazy/beautiful is directed by writer, actor, and director John Stockwell, who also penned the same year's Rock Star.

8. I Love You, I Love You Not (1997)

THEMES Crimes Against Humanity Haunted By the Past High School Life Race Relations

KEYWORDS Prisoner of War prejudice student romance Nazism Judaism atrocity concentration-camp flashback anti-Semitism love

GENRES Drama

DIRECTED BY Billy Hopkins

COUNTRIES France, Germany, UK, USA RUN TIME92 min

Synopsis

Funded by the Ford Foundation, a one-act play by Wendy Kesselman about a teenage girl's coming of age was expanded to become the directorial debut of prominent casting director Billy Hopkins. Claire Danes stars as Daisy, a well-to-do but shy and bookish Manhattan teenager attending an exclusive prep school, keeping her Jewish identity a secret and harboring a secret crush on the school's star athlete Ethan Wells (Jude Law). The only person in Daisy's life that she feels comfortable opening up to is her grandmother, Nana (Jeanne Moreau), a Holocaust survivor who shares with her granddaughter an affinity for flowers. As Nana relates tragic stories of the horrors experienced in her youth (seen in flashbacks featuring Danes as the young Moreau), she becomes a guide of sorts for Daisy through her difficult adolescence. Ethan eventually notices Daisy's attention and begins courting her, but then Daisy's Jewish heritage is discovered by her snooty classmates, leading to a campaign of anti-Semitism and a truncated romance for the broken-hearted Daisy, who now needs Nana's compassion more than ever.

9. Hiroshima Maiden (1988)

THEMES Race Relations Social Injustice

KEYWORDS war

GENRES Drama

DIRECTED BY Joan Darling RUN TIME58 min.

Synopsis

Victory in war doesn't end prejudice. That idea is enacted in the 1988 release Hiroshima Maiden. Ten years after the end of World War II, suburbs are becoming popular as baby boomers seek normalcy. While race riots are being raged in the South, middle-class America deals with a subtler form of bigotry. Miyeko, a Japanese survivor of Hiroshima, seeks plastic surgery in the United States. Sent to live with an American family, she faces a daily struggle against hatred. Her toughest critic is the story's hero, Jonathan, who combats peer pressure and his own feelings while befriending Miyeko. The family is outcast during the young girl's recovery. Meanwhile, Jonathan's expectations are smashed when he learns life is less than ideal. Jonathan's growth comes from an increased understanding of others. Joan Darling directs Susan Blakey, Richard Masur, Stephen Dorff, and Tamlyn Tomita in this thought-provoking presentation.

10. Go In Peace Jamil (2008)

THEMES Immigrant Life Culture Clash Misfits and Outsiders Race Relations

GENRES Drama

DIRECTED BY Omar Shargawi

COUNTRIES Denmark RUN TIME89 min.

Synopsis

First time feature filmmaker Omar Shargawi explores the experiences of Arabs in western countries by focusing on the cultural and religious beliefs that they carry with them when moving into a society that doesn't necessarily share the same value system. Jamil is a young Arab living in Denmark. Alienated from his wife and child after moving into a Copenhagen community populated largely by Arab immigrants, the power of Jamil's weakening family bonds are put to the ultimate test as he sets out to settle some lingering debts.

11. American East (2007)

THEMES Race Relations Unlikely Friendships

KEYWORDS Arab-American racial tension restaurant Jewish widow/ widower stereotype September 11th

GENRES Drama Psychological Drama

DIRECTED BY Hesham Issawi

COUNTRIES USA RUN TIME111 min.

Synopsis

The heightened racial tensions of post-9/11 America are at the center of this 2007 drama, the feature debut from director Hesham Issawi. Co-writer Sayed Badreya stars as Mustafa, an Egyptian-born entrepreneur facing the daily challenges of an Arab Muslim living in Los Angeles and hoping to open a restaurant with his Jewish best friend, played by Tony Shalhoub. As Mustafa is met with friction for this unlikely plan, several other stories of adversity in the Arab-American community unfold around him.

characteristics

12. Why Am I Doing This? (2009)

THEMES Ladder to the Top Race Relations

KEYWORDS show-business stereotype struggle minority African-American Asian-American comedian

DIRECTED BY Tom Huang

COUNTRIES USA RUN TIME122 min.

Synopsis

Two young performers have to deal with racial stereotyping along with the countless other stumbling blocks to establishing a successful career in this independent comedy from director Tom Huang. Lester Niles (Anthony Montgomery) is a struggling stand-up comic who deals in dry observational humor. However, Lester is also African-American, and audiences and comedy club bookers are often puzzled about why his material isn't more "black," while his manager and half-brother Kenny (Joe Torry) urges him to sound more like Martin Lawrence. Adding to his frustrations, Kenny is in love with Nira (Sheetal Sheth), who clearly likes him but doesn't take him seriously as a boyfriend. Lester is good friends with Tony Chang (Tom Huang), an aspiring actor who is Asian-American and sick of getting auditions for roles as sushi chefs, delivery boys or exchange students. Tony's parents are tired of his career getting nowhere, his older sister Donna (Tamlyn Tomita) is a successful businesswoman who thinks Tony should quit show biz for a desk job, and his younger brother Danny (Dion Basco) is a would-be rapper and street racer. And Tony has his own romantic problems, as he's torn between Katie (Lynn Chen), a fellow struggling actor he meets while they're both working a children's party, and Amber (Emma Caulfield), who is blonde and beautiful but more interested in borrowing Tony's car than a long-term relationship. Why Am I Doing This? won the "New Visions" Award at the 2009 Cinequest Film Festival.

13. American Promise (2013)

GENRES Culture & Society

THEMES Race & Ethnicity Social Issues

CATEGORY Documentary

DIRECTED BY Joe Brewster Michele Stephenson

COUNTRIES USA RUN TIME135 min.

Synopsis

In 1999, the Dalton School, one of New York City's most prestigious and respected private schools, made a new commitment to creating a diverse student body, and established scholarship opportunities that would enable more deserving minority candidates to attend. Five-year-old Idris Brewster and his close friend Seun Summers were two African-American students admitted to Dalton under this program, and Idris' parents, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson, set out to document the boys' experiences. Brewster and Stephenson followed Idris and Seun's progress over the next twelve years, and in the documentary American Promise, we're offered an intimate look at how they reacted to a rigorous academic environment, their issues with being African-American in a school still dominated by white students and faculty, and the universal challenges of growing up, as well as the boys' struggles with racial identity in and out of school and Idris' relationship with his often quarreling parents. American Promise received its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.