Myth of a Colorblind France explores the extraordinary and sometimes difficult lives of Blacks in Paris from the 19th century to the present. For more than a century, African American artists, authors, musicians and others have traveled to Paris to liberate themselves from the racism of the United States. What made these African Americans choose France? Why were the French fascinated by African Americans? And to what extent was and is France truly colorblind? Alan Govenar's n... (Full plot summary below)
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Myth of a Colorblind France explores the extraordinary and sometimes difficult lives of Blacks in Paris from the 19th century to the present. For more than a century, African American artists, authors, musicians and others have traveled to Paris to liberate themselves from the racism of the United States. What made these African Americans choose France? Why were the French fascinated by African Americans? And to what extent was and is France truly colorblind? Alan Govenar's new documentary investigates these questions and examines the ways that racism has plagued not only Blacks fleeing the United States, but Africans and people of color in France today. The film explores the lives and careers of renowned African Americans who emigrated to Paris, including Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Beauford Delaney, Augusta Savage, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and Lois Mailou Jones, and includes rare home movie footage of Henry Ossawa Tanner in Paris. Myth of a Colorblind France features interviews with Michel Fabre (author of a landmark biography on Richard Wright), psychoanalyst and jazz aficionado Francis Hofstein, poet James Emanuel, historian Tyler Stovall, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris, graffiti artist Quik, hip hop producer Ben the Glorious Bastard, African drummer Karim Toure, and many more.
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| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThis is a huge subject, and the film, which favors anecdotes over a macro treatment, doesn’t have much structure to speak of. It consists of one brief profile after another — a strategy that is efficient for delivering information, but that leaves Myth of a Colorblind France dry and disarrayed as filmmaking. |
| The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeA deeply frustrating doc that only rarely engages with its ostensible subject, Alan Govenar's The Myth of a Colorblind France intends to examine the country's reputation as a haven for Black Americans, but more often plays as travelogue, checklist of Francophile artists and meandering collective memoir. |
| User ReviewBrent_MarchantAs a collection of anecdotes about expatriate African-Americans who found fame in France that they never would have found in the U.S. (as well as the reasons behind that success), this documentary succeeds well. However, as a treatise on the subject that is the essence of the film's title, the picture comes up woefully short, skimming the surface of this topic but never really delving into the meat of it. Viewers are treated to mere morsels of why the notion of French colorblindness is a myth, never really exploring the reasons for this in any great depth. In light of that, then, it seems that some retooling of this project -- beginning with its essential premise -- would have resulted in a much better film. To improve upon what's here, the production would either have to focus more on what it already does best or get more serious about what the title promises it's going to do. |
