Becoming Black

DIRECTOR: Ines Johnson-Spain COUNTRY: Germany YEAR: 2019 LANGUAGE(S): German, French SUBTITLES: German RUNNING TIME: 91 min

SECTION: Weekender 2020

SYNOPSIS
Her parents and brother are white, but her skin colour is dark. They are told that this is pure coincidence. This is what happened to a girl in East Berlin in the 1960s. In an East German village, Sigrid falls in love with the Togolese student Lucien and becomes pregnant, but she is already married to Armin.
The child is the filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. At home she is told that everything is fine and there is nothing to discuss, but outside she is often confronted with racist hostility. In this intimate yet critical search for clues, she combines these confusing and painful childhood memories with sober reports that tell of a culture of rejection, silence and denial. And she goes to Togo to visit her family there.
BECOMING BLACK is a very personal reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties and focuses on a decidedly Afro-German perspective.

INES JOHNSON-SPAIN

Ines Johnson-Spain is an independent East-German/Togolese filmmaker based in Berlin.
She studied Sciences of Religions at Free University Berlin and was a guest student for Fine Arts, Painting and Film History at University of Arts Berlin.

She worked for many years as a scenic painter and in various positions of the art departments of national and international film-productions.(e.g. Peter Greenaway, Anders Thomas Jensen, Lana Wachowsky and Andrej Swjaginzew). Since 2003 she writes and realizes films, with a focus on documentary form. Her work centers on intimate portraits that explore the notion of self and affiliation in a complex way. More recently she directed the film „L‘Esprit de Madjid“, about a young gay man from Togo who is a follower of Voudou and relates to himself through his spirits. The autobiographical film „Becoming Black“ is her first feature length film.

FILMOGRAPHY

Becoming Black (2019), Avoir et Être (2017), L’Esprit de Madjid (2009), La Petite Difference (2005), Le PingPong d‘Amour (2003-2006)

SCRIPT: Ines Johnson-Spain PRODUCER: Anahita Nazemi CAMERA: Sebastian Winkels, Anne Misselwitz EDITOR: Yana Höhnerbach, Elfe Brandenburger MUSIC: Jean-Paul Bourelly

PRODUCTION: Kobalt Documentary GERMAN DISTRIBUTOR: Rushlake Media

WEBSITE: https://becomingblack.de/de/