more of what I'm watching

Last night was a treat. I watched "Becoming Black" on Kanopy. What an incredible movie. The filmmaker, Ines Johnson-Spain grows up half-African in very white East Germany, and only discovers in her late twenties the truth about her heritage. It shares themes with "Little White Lie."

This theme of families and secrets continues to resonate with me. The vast gulf between Johnson-Spain in the scenes with her German father--cautious, face drawn, having to talk over him to get her point across--and then with her family in Togo, where she smiles and gazes lovingly at photos of her father and other family members, learning the family tree as though it were a beloved poem.