Black Enuf*

Carrie Hawks’s award-winning short documentary about the many skewed perceptions of what constitutes real blackness in America offers a hybrid of playful animation, a tone of bemused self-consciousness, and live-action interviews with a bit more edge. A light-skinned African American with an even lighter-skinned father, Hawks—referring to her school days—describes what her skin color meant in a number of social and cultural contexts. She describes being on the lowest-rung of black girls at her high school to be asked to homecoming by a black boy, and the confusing politics of which table to sit at in the school cafeteria. But she also wittily describes her innocent defiance of stereotypes as a gay black woman during other times in her life. Was it okay to like the Beach Boys? Do black people belong in ski lodges? What about "investigating Buddhism" instead of attending a black church? Hawks interviews family and friends, who have stories to tell about living in the crossfire of conflicting perceptions about one’s place, value, and identity as a black American. Both funny and biting, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)