Becoming
Black

A Film by Ines Johnson-Spain

A white couple in East-Berlin (GDR) in the 1960s tell their Black child that its skin colour is pure coincidence and of no significance. This is also what the girl prefers to believe, until she accidentally discovers the truth as a teenager.

Now in the role of film-maker and protagonist, Ines Johnson-Spain reconstructs her family history in the film BECOMING BLACK. In emotional and open conversations with her stepfather, the atmosphere of silence and repression gets impressively palpable.

While exploring the taboo that overshadowed her entire upbringing, the film-maker reveals structural racism in the GDR.

Together with the moving encounters with her late found family Johnson-Spain has traced in Togo and Benin, BECOMING BLACK develops into a deeply personal reflection on questions of affiliation, social norms and concepts of family.

https://becomingblack.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ines-1.jpg

… refused an identification within the majority nation, the people had to find out who they are. Their histories lie far back in the past, inscribed in their skins. But it is not because of their skins that they become Black in their heads.

Stuart Hall

Screeningdates | Festivals | Awards

SCREENINGDATES
festivals
WORLD PREMIERE - INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILMFESTIVAL AMSTERDAM - IDFA - 2019
GERMAN PREMIERE - INTERNATIONALES FRAUENFILMFESTIVAL DORTMUND/KÖLN - 2020
BERLIN PREMIERE - ACHTUNG BERLIN - NEW BERLIN FILM AWARD - 2020
recent screenings
08.02.2024 6pm Cinemark Baldwin Hills Crenshaw @PAFF + Q&A, LA
11.02.2024 8:30pm Cinemark Baldwin Hills Crenshaw @PAFF with Q&A
26.03.24 6:30pm Revolutionary Romances, Albertinum, Dresden
19.04. 8:30pm Echos der Bruderländer, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
05.06.-08.06. LightReel Film Festival, Washington
tv
ZDF - Kleines Fernsehspiel / plus Mediathek
3SAT + Phönix
AL Jazeera "Witness" - shortened version
TVO - Ontario/Canada
more festivals
March 2020 - Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil, France
14.9. - 18.9. Quibdo Africa Film Festival, Colombia online
01.10. - 02.10. Human Rights Film Festival Nürnberg, Germany
07.10. - 13.10. Festival du Cinéallemand France, Goethe Institut Paris
07.10. - 10.10. EINS ZU EINS - Festival für Theater, Performance, Fine Arts... Berlin
08.10. - 10.10. iAfrica Film Festival The Hague, Netherland
11.10. - 27.10. Institut de l’image Aix-en-provence, France
18.10. - 23.10. PRIX - European Broadcasting Festival, Germany
30.10. - 08.11. BFI London, Royal African Society’s FILM AFRICA,
20.11. -29.11. The No Direct Flight Nairobi film season, Kenya - online
23. 11. German Cinema Now! Seattle, Goethe Institut, USA - online
24.11. Out of Africa International Film Festival Nairobi, Kenya – online
29.11. Crocevia di Sguardi, Italy - online
05.12. - 11.12. Film Festival LagunImages, Cotonou, Benin
2021
20.01. - 26.01. KINO-Mostra de Cinema de Expressão Alemã, Portugal, hybrid
25.03. - 31.03. Luxor African Film Festival, Egypt
01.04. -18.04. AFI New African Film Festival at Silver Theatre, USA - online
02.06. -05.06. Ramsgate International Film & TV Festival, UK
07.6.-13.6. Festival "Dear white people..." Freiburg
27.09.-30.09. Festival "Was Wir Filmten" Kino Zazie, Halle
16.10.-23.10. FESPACO, Film Festival, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
04.11. Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt a. Main
11.10.-24.10. CinemAfrica, Stockholm
25.10.-31.10. L'Afrique fait son Cinema, Paris
02.11.-06.11. Theater Festival euro-scene Leipzig, Leipzig
16.11.-20.11. Festival Images de Migrations, France
20.11. - 28.11. Film Festival Bangui-Fait son Cinéma, Central African Republic
25.11. - 5.12. Aux Écrans du Réel - Asso Chroma, Le Mans, France
27.11. - 02.12. Biennale of Luanda, Angola
2022
13.02. Black History Month - Turin, Italy
26.04. - 30.04. Koudougou Doc - Burkina Faso
09.06. Goethe Institut Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso
15.10.-28.10. German American Conference at Havard University, USA
29.10. Goethe Institut Lomé,Togo (Canal Olympia, Université de Lomé
24.11. University of Toronto, Canada
2023
10.02. Maysles Cinema, Harlem, New York
10.04. Dartmouth College New Hampshire, USA
17.03. Goethe Institut Los Angeles, USA
10.05.-16.05. IFF Beldocs, Belgrad, Serbien
14.06-15.06. Summer-Filminstitut at DEFA-Library, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
29.06.-04.07. The Future is Africa Filmfestival, Sinema Transtopia, Berlin
16.11.-26.11. Was anderes machen - 60 Jahre ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel, Silent Green, Berlin
2024
06.02.-19.02. Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles, LA, USA
26.03. Revolutionary Romances, Albertinum Dresden
19.04. Echos der Bruderländer, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
05.06.-08.06.LightReel Film Festival, Washington
2025
Spring term - Kade professorship, German Studies Dep., Dartmouth College, USA
AWARDS / NOMINATIONS
NOMINATION at AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDs 2020 for BEST DOCUMENTARY
NOMINATION at AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDs 2020 for BEST DOCUMENTARY DIASPORA
WINNER at AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDs 2020 BEST DOCUMENTARY DIASPORA
NOMINATION for PRIX EUROPA 2020 BEST DOCUMENTARY
NOMINATION for PRIZE OF ECUMENICAL JURY at ACHTUNG BERLIN
NOMINATION AUDIENCE AWARD at MOSTRA DE CINEMA DE EXPRESSÃO ALEMÃ, Portugal
NOMINATION BEST DOCUMENTARY 2020 by ASSOCIATION of GERMAN FILM CRITICS
WINNER COMPETITION BEST DOCUMENTARY DIASPORA at LUXOR AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL

Worldpremiere November 2019 at IDFA Amsterdam

such as (f.l.t.r.)
Brooke Trezise / Soundesign,
Yana Höhnerbach / Editor,
Anahita Nazemi / Producer