Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) 2009
Distributed by Cinema Guild, 115 West 30th Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10001; 212-685-6242
Produced by Akosua Adoma Owusu
Directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu
DVD, color b&w,, 22 min.
College
African Studies, African American Studies, Gender Studies, Adoption, Multicultural Studies, Postcolonialism
Date Entered: 02/25/2010
Reviewed by Ciara Healy, Outreach Services Librarian, Polk Library, University of Wisconsin-OshkoshMe Broni Ba (My White Baby) is an artful film that makes several political points about standards of beauty for African women and children, using a variety of techniques such as interposing black and white and color shots, hand held camera work and stop-motion collage.
At the start, Me Broni Ba seems to be about hair – braiding in particular – but about half way through the nonlinear narrative shifts to a first person narrative that relates to the title, a girl’s experience with a white baby doll and how it connects to her move from her home country to another where most of the other school children are not black. Her experience with the other school children – mostly through her desire to touch and explore the differences between her hair and their hair – is fraught from the adult’s perspective but resolved among the children themselves. So, hair is the aperture through which race is explored, though images of poverty, cross-racial and international adoptions (“baby dolls” in another sense) are included to broaden the scope of the film.
Overall, this film would be of use in a women’s or gender studies classroom, especially when discussing race and gender, as well as a larger library collection supporting postcolonial studies and African or African American studies curricula and research.
Awards
- Winner – 2nd Prize Documentary Short Athens International Film and Video Festival