The Title 'Black is" stems from Marlon Riggs' documentary "Black is, Black, Ain't" (1994) where he addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community. I specifically chose this title as the concept of being black cannot be defined into one sentence. It is much more complex than that.
I based my footage on five essential questions which were:
1. What does the term identity mean to you?
2. What does the term black mean to you?
3. What does it mean to be black?
4. Did you ever realise you were black?
5. Why is your identity so important to you?
The footage follows Hyde, Adel and Mary attempting to address the premise of identity. As it is quite a complicated and broad concept to tackle, the questions above provided them to make connections to broader topics such as colourism and cultural assimilation. Moreover, alongside the footage is a video diary of me tackling three out of the five questions.
