These white boys are all struck by color in different (almost always bad) ways.
Dating outside your race shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Something that should be acknowledged but ultimately just another facet of the relationship? That’s not most women’s experience, especially in the short doc Colourstruck.
Director Adam Mbowe’s wonderfully candid interviews with six black women in Calgary offer up stories of tokenism, first date horror stories, and more – all from people who are, in one subject’s words, “colourstruck.” The difference in race was in the forefront of their minds before the relationship became anything more.
Listening to these women, it’s not as if they ignore race. They think about it too, are very aware of the sociological nuances that come with being approached by men of different backgrounds. But documentarians listen just a bit harder than your typical college guy. Let’s hope documentary audiences do too.