Black Sheep (short film)

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Movie
Original title Black Sheep
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2018
length 26 minutes
Rod
Director Ed Perkins
production Jonathan Chinn,
Simon Chinn
music Tom Barnes
camera Michael Paleodimos
cut Ed Perkins
occupation

Black Sheep (German Black Sheep ) is a British short documentary film directed by Ed Perkins , who also edited the film. It is about the dark-skinned Cornelius Walker, whose family moved from London after the murder of Damilola Taylor and who finds out in his new place of residence that racists prevail, and about his unusual way of dealing with the new situation. The film was first shown on May 1, 2018 at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival and was available via online stream from October 26, 2018.

The documentary is in the Oscars 2019 in the category Best Short Documentary nominated.

content

In 2000, Damilola Taylor , who was also dark-skinned and about the same age, was stabbed to death in south London near the place of residence of the dark-skinned ten-year-old Cornelius Walker , which received a lot of attention in the press. At the urging of Cornelius' mother, who was deeply emotionally affected by the death, the family of four moved out of the area just two months later.

The adult Cornelius tells the camera how they moved into a commuter suburb that was apparently only inhabited by whites. He was quickly confronted with the emerging racism there against dark-skinned people; he was also quick to see that the streets were ruled by two racist gangs. After being beaten up, he decided to take an unusual step to survive in this hostile environment: trying to adapt as best he could. He saved the money off the neck for matching branded clothing, changed his hairstyle, put on blue contact lenses and used skin lighteners . Furthermore, he gradually made friends with the gang members in order to become part of the group, which was only possible because he did not question their racist attitude and because he participated in acts of violence against things and other people, especially against other dark-skinned people.

The discrepancy between one's own dark-skinned identity and the group identity led to indiscriminate violence against third parties. The adult Cornelius describes it as saying that in order to be loved he made friends with monsters.

reception

Rob Munday wrote on Short of the Week : "Although the film shows real-life events that happened over 15 years ago, with its focus on racism and identity it feels like a very timely work."

Awards and nominations (extract)

At the Aesthetica Short Film Festival he won the award for Best Documentary and Best Festival Film as well as an award for Best Screenplay.

The film won a Festival Film Candidate Award for the European Film Awards 2019 at the Cork International Film Festival .

Black Sheep won the Best Short Documentary Award at the Dallas Video Festival .

It was awarded for Best Documentary Short Film at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival .

At the This is England Film Festival Rouen , the film dominated the awards ceremony with three best film prizes, namely from the jury, the audience and the students (Lycée).

Black Sheep was nominated for the 2019 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Academy Awards 2019. In: oscars.org. Retrieved January 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Black Sheep as Short Film of the Week.
  3. ↑ AWARDS 2018 - Cork Film Festival. In: corkfilmfest.org. Retrieved January 26, 2019 (UK English).
  4. ^ Sheffield Doc / Fest: Sheffield International Documentary Festival. In: sheffdocfest.com. Retrieved January 26, 2019 (UK English).
  5. ^ This is England - Festival du court métrage britannique de Rouen. In: en.thisisengland-festival.com. Retrieved January 26, 2019 (UK English).

Web links