MOVING PICTURES

‘White Black Boy’

A Troubling Documentary About Growing-Up Different Comes to a Bold New Streaming Platform

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

Shida is a new kid in his class at an English language boarding school in Tanzania. He struggles learning to read, he’s quiet and shy, and has a hard time making new friends. He’s got a great smile and a sweet disposition, but being a new kid among strangers only seems to add to his troubles. Shida was born with albinism. In the Shinyanga Region of Tanzania, people with albinism are hunted and killed for their various body parts which are sold to practitioners of witchcraft who believe these white-skinned black people to be magically potent. In Shinyanga, the body of an albino child can be sold for $25,000. Practitioners of witchcraft make these grim transactions in order to create an in-demand get-richquick potion. Children with albinism must often leave home in order to avoid abduction, and many are taken by the Tanzanian government to private boarding schools where they can be protected and educated.

Camilla Magid’s 2012 documentary White Black Boy just debuted on the Write Brain TV digital movie platform, and it streams for the rest of the month. It’s been awhile since the bad old days following Michael Moore’s rise to superstar documentary filmmaker status, when every non-fiction storyteller with a camera suddenly decided it was a great idea to put themselves front and center in every project they made. Here, Magid and cinematographer Talib Rasmussen practically make their camera disappear in this refreshing example of direct cinematic storytelling that stays focused on its subject, only adding very minimal on-screen text at the beginning of the film to provide basic information about witchcraft and albinism in Tanzania.

One night, after the boys go to bed, some teachers chat about the plight of “the albinos,” and Magid records the conversation through a wall from a corner at the end of a hallway. The muffled voices honk warmly in the still night while Rasmussen’s camera hovers nearby the boys in their beds. Some of them are sleeping, but some curious or more mischievous boys eavesdrop, their wide eyes peering from between the strands of their mosquito nets. The film immerses viewers in Shida’s lonely world, far away from his home and family, and isolated by a condition that will always mark him — and the other white-skinned black boys at his school — as different.

The Write Brain TV platform is the brainchild of artist and filmmaker, Kevin Ronca. Ronca produced the 2019 documentary Nightcrawlers which was made by a homeless filmmaker, and which I reviewed here in The Contributor when it screened at the Defy Film Festival. Ronca has always championed underground films from outsider subcultures, and WBTV promises to be a “safe space for art to be dangerous.”

The platform’s June schedule is packed with weird gems like the art films of Maya Deren, the anti-imperialism documentaries of John Pilger, a slate of experimental films by Japanese auteur Toshio Matsumoto, and a miniature film fest, Women of the Avant-Garde (1922-1967). Magid’s film isn’t technically experimental — it’s really a throwback to styles that emerged in the mid-20th century. But, White Black Boy’s subject matter is definitely disturbing and challenging, and one can imagine it’s not the kind of film Netflix is looking to lean into while they’re hemorrhaging subscribers and laying off employees. That’s why platforms like Write Brain TV are important for filmmakers and film lovers alike.

Shida’s story is an extra hard tale about growing up, but it’s a dark story that gets a little brighter by the end of its short runtime. After Shida fails a major school test he befriends a boy named Allan. Allan is a patient, natural teacher, and Shida tells him about a time when he was almost kidnapped. It’s the most words Shida says in this whole movie and it’s the most chilling part of this exemplary documentary film.

White Black Boy streams through June 30 at https://www. writebrainstudios.tv/

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based inEast Nashville. Find out more about hisprojects at www.joenolan.com.