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Becoming Black
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Becoming Black

2019-10-09 · 91 min · ★ 6.0

Documentary

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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Production details

Directors
Ines Johnson-Spain
Production companies
ZDF, Kobalt Productions
Countries
Germany
Status
Released

Top Cast

Ines Johnson-SpainSelf
Armin GundermannSelf
Madeleine Papangou JohnsonSelf
Germaine Papangou JohnsonSelf
Geneviève Papangou JohnsonSelf
Irène Papangou JohnsonSelf
Christel AndersSelf
Werner AndersSelf
Rosi JudischSelf
Christophe Kuessi JohnsonSelf
Michael GundermannSelf
Raymond JohnsonSelf
Perpétue JohnsonSelf
Asiaba JohnsonSelf
Gisela MwaunguluSelf
Ernst HoffmannSelf
Robert Kuessi JohnsonSelf
Ruben Kweku Dabam JohnsonSelf
Gisele HountondjiSelf
Gabriel Ampah JohnsonSelf

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