Sunday night the long anticipated film Dark Girls premiered on the OWN network, and the ripple effect of the film is still being felt across the entertainment industry and the country.
The film, which screened last year at many festivals from the Pan African Film Festival to the American Black Film Festival, finally saw its network premiere and even though many had not seen the film, those that did kept the film alive by seeing the special screenings across the country and spreading a word of mouth campaign that hasn’t been seen like this since Lee Daniel’s film Precious.
If you haven’t heard this film its easily one of the hottest black films released in the past year, and it is continuing to get a lot of buzz even after the network premiere. The film was co-Directed by Bill Duke (Duke Media) and D. Channsin Berry (Urban Winter Entertainment) and examines the colorism of African American women today but ends up creating conversations that have plagued the not only black community for years, but the Asian and Latin communities as well. It speaks to the issues that many have with their skin tone and what it means and feels like to live in a world as a darker skinned person. This film broadcasts the message of what many may have struggled with for years, and it also lends itself to a means of healing.
As a documentary, we, the viewer, get a chance to see interviews from several people throughout the film such as psychological view from Cheryl Grills, Ph.D. just to name a few. The film also brings in a Hollywood perspective as DG sits down with comedian Michael Coylar and actress Viola Davis and several others.
After the premiere, Twitter has stated to us that the #DarkGirls was the leading topic trending on Twitter Sunday Night, and OWN also saw a significant jump in their Sunday night ratings (nothing we can say officially yet until Nielsen releases their ratings).
What we can also say is the film will be rebroadcast on OWN on Tuesday and we hear that the producers are fast tracking a sequel.
Stay tuned for the tour details soon!
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