Can anyone else out there name other movies (or books) about "Passing", the situation where a light-skinned black person intentionally 'passes' themselves as white persons?
These are the only movies I know about in existence:
1) Imitation of Life (1934)
2) Imitation of Life (1959)
3) Lost Boundaries (1949)
4) The Human Stain (2003)
Also there was "Pinky", "Band of Angels", "Kings Go Forth", "Night of the Quarter Moon (a low rent take on "Imitation of Life's" passing theme) "Angelitos Negros" (the Mexican version of "Imitation of Life"),I Passed for White" (I never saw it, but its listed in the "tragic mulatto" section of the Farris State Jim Crow Museum web sitehttp://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/), "A Solder's Story" (also listed on the site), "Within Our Gates", the last two of the three film versions of "Showboat", "The Cotton Club", "Ship of Fools", "Birth of a Nation" (had a tragic mulatto ;;character to go along with all the other negative black stereotypes), "Island in the Sun" (at least on of the seemingly white characters), "Illusions" (Lonette McKee's independent film about a Hollywood producer trying to cover up her black background), "Black Like Me" (a white journalist passing for black), "Slow Burn" (a white woman passing herself off as biracial for political and criminal reasons) and "Sapphire" (a British take on the passing narrative)
Examples from other cultures: "Queenie" (based loosely on Merle Oberon's attempt to hide her East Indian background), "Europa Europa" (about a Jewish youth passing himself off as a Hitler Youth member in order to survive the Holocaust) and, in the same vain "Gentleman's Agreement" (the main WASP character was passing for Jewish in order to learn about anti-Semitism)
"Gattaca" is a science fiction version of the passing theme. It's set in a future where people who have not been genetically perfected, before birth are second class citizens and the only way the main character can escape his "faith birth" status is to assume another person's identity...I'm sure there are others.
People are just getting dumber, but more opinionated-Ernestine (Silks) in "The Human Stain"
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...There is also "Devil With a Blue Dress" with Jennifer Baals well cast as a light skinned black women who is trying to keep her racial identity secret.
People are just getting dumber, but more opinionated-Ernestine (Silks) in "The Human Stain"
There's "A House Divided", a true story about the daughter of a slave and her master who was born from a rape but raised as a white girl and told her mother died in childbirth. After her father's death, his will leaves her everything, but when the secret gets out, she finds her inheritance compromised, and the issue is taken to the Georgia Supreme Court.
shareWhile far from mainstream Oscar Micheaux's "God's Step Children" (1938) is certainly an example of a movie about passing for white. Micheaux had dealt with the subject before in "With in our Gates". After being denied entry to an all white school as a child and winding up married to a poor farmer as an adult the main character. a light skinned black woman named Naomi, finally tells the woman who had raised her, "I'm leaving the Negro race. I'm going away from all I ever knew; to the other side...If you see me, you don't know me. Even if you pass me on the street, I am a stranger.".
The similarity of this scene and the scene where Peola tells her mother that she is leaving to pass for white in "Imitation of Life" (1934) is probably not coincidental. Unlike that better known film "God's Step Child" does explain why it's main character no longer wants to be black.
Micheaux's "race cinema" films were crude in comparison to Hollywood productions of the era, but in working outside of the studio system he did bring a higher level of honesty to his movies.
Joe the plumber is right.
Definitely remember that movie.
What's more dangerous than sincere ignorance?
I have not seen "School Ties" but my comment is not about the movie but about how you described the character. I do not intend to be disrespectful I just wanted to make a correction.
Being Jewish describes your religion not your race. There are whites who are Jewish and blacks who are Jewish. It is the same as being Catholic; there are white Catholics and black Catholics.
Being Jewish is a way of life; it is a religion, a culture and a heritage.
Isn't being black in America also a sort of culture and heritage? I'm not American, and I used to find it extremely odd that someone who looks, acts and considers him- or herself white should be recognized as black by his or her environment. The one-drop rule always struck me as insanely idiotic from many different angles, and the fact that it's still applied more or less to-day continues to baffle me.
I then came to the conclusion - with a little help from my friends, of course - that race in America is all about history and heritage. That is, being "black" in America has less to do with having a dark complexion and more to do with being "black-listed" from society because of one's African ancestry.
That sure explains why Americans are so obsessed with race all the time. In Europe and Africa, it's not any preconceived notions of race that divide us, but rather culture and religion. They have the same effect as race in America: they separate the others from the masses. Being Jewish, Romani, Muslim, Somalian, Nigerian or whatever is what's gonna get you black-listed in Europe or Africa.
So in a poor attempt to counter your argument, I would say yes, being Jewish does often, in certain instances, describe a person's "race". A Jew could definitely be passing as "white", or whatever term you prefer.
Nowadays that's how it works but back when the movie School Ties was based people treated being jewish as a race and they were often discrimnated against. Also some Jews don't consider Jewish as a reglion you can claim or just cross into. My roommate is Jewish and her family feels that if you can't trace your ancestors to the Holocaust then you aren't Jewish so you can't just claim it. I'm not sure how I feel about it but that's how her family does. People do cross over but people who can trace back to the Holocaust don't consider them to be truly Jewish.
Just got secretly engaged to the best guy ever!!
Did anyone mention "Shadows" by John Cassavettes?
shareThere is a book called "Passin'" written by Karen E. Quinones Miller.
"Shanika Ann Jenkins is the pride of her family: blonde, blue-eyed, and beautiful-the result of years of passing down light skin and "marrying well". But when she turned down for a job at a New York City PR firm, she changes her name to Nicole and gets another position. It's not her fault, she reasons, that everyone assumes she white. But the more she gets the more people she hurt. When a successful African-American businessman think Shanika is the white woman of his dream, her world spins out of control. With her future on the line, she'll have to go beyond skin deep to discover what really worth reaching for-and the person she truly wants."
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There was the miniseries "Queen" with Halle Berry based on the Alex Haley novel. There's also "The Believer" with Ryan Gosling, about a Jewish Neo-Nazi.
"Sacred cows make the best hamburger."
Not a movie, I know, but an episode of "Law and Order" entitled "Blood" deals with a man who passes until his white wife has a black-looking baby. They give up the baby for adoption, but she wants to get it back. The man's ex-wife (also white) doesn't want people to know that her son is part-black and she kills the second wife so no one will see the baby and know their secret.
shareI believe Alfred Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood British film Murder (1930) qualifies. Esme Percy plays the mixed race Handel Fane, who is also an effeminate transvestite trapeze artist who commits murder. Well, I did say it was a Hitchcock movie (smile).
share"Old San Francisco"(1927) had Swedish born actor, Warner Oland, playing a villainous part Chinese character who was passing for white. This was from 1927 folks.
One interesting fact. Last year TCM ran this movie in their "Asian Images in Films" series not surprisingly as a negative example. This year TCM reran the movie in their "Latino Images on Film" series as a more or less positive depicting of that ethnic group. The guest expert was quick to point out the Latino characters were played by non-Latinos.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Another movie from 1927 with a passing theme of sorts was "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Late in the film, after the start of the Civil War, George Harris returns from Canada and took advantage of his white appearance to look for his wife, Eliza, and their son ahead of advancing union forces. They had been captured by slave catcher in Ohio as a result of the Dread Scott decision and dragged back to the south and involuntary servitude..
Of course Harriet Beecher Stowe first published "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852, nine years before the start of the conflict. Also, in novel, Eliza and her baby successfully escape, rejoin George in Canada, move on to France and then Liberia. So this movie, the third most expensive to produce at the time, was an exciting dram about a light skinned black family trying to stay together it didn't have that much to do the classic abolitionist novel at least toward the end.
One thing carried over from novel was the fact the main characters, described in the terminology of the time as quadroons or octoroons, were light skinned. This had nothing to do with any sort of passing narrative. It has been suggested Stowe described the characters that way so white readers could find it easier to identify with.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
If you want to stretch the concept of passing to fantasy/cartoon movies Judge Doom, AKA Barron Von Rotten in "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit" was a Toon (cartoon character) who somehow passed as a flash and blood human being and uses his position to exploit and even kill others of his kind; an obvious case of extreme self hatred. The symbolism is obviously there.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Roger Rabbit was like Lincoln Perry (who performed as Stepin Fetchit), a star but for doing stereotypical physical comedy. Jessica Rabbit was an analog to Lena Horne, performing in the Ink 'n' Paint Club (The Cotton Club) where toons could work but not get in as customers. She was very close to the ideal (looking white / looking human), but she couldn't quite pass, which is why she was working in a place like that. Judge Doom could pass, but his self-hatred led to him wanting to eliminate the toons that he felt were holding back progress. All the toons lived in a ghetto exploited by the entertainment industry, making lots of money but still disrespected.
shareThat's a good point Theora23.
At first glance it's difficult to see Jessica Rabbit as Lena Horne,since the character is based on Kathleen Turner who did the voice, but the symbolism is there. Early in her career Ms. Horne was pressured to pass for white, but refused. whether she could of have brought it off or not will never be known. Neither will the names of most of the light skinned blacks, in Hollywood, who passed successfully.
Roger Rabbit was a Lincoln Perry like character. Unlike Roger Rabbit, was what he was all the time, Perry was far different in real life then his onscreen persona and was capable of so much more then he was allowed to do.
As you noted the parallels between the Paint Club and the Cotton Club was far from subtle. Neither was Hollywood exploitation.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Not my personal choice of a favorite movie, but a recently watched it to see what all the fuss was about.
Obvious the extended Cullin family kept the fact they were vampires secret to avoid complications like local town's people showing up at their door with torches and pitchforks which would make this an example of a fantasy passing movie.
There is the relationship between George Cullin and Bella Swan, a non vampire, were he gradually lets her in on the family secret. There was family hostility from his side. I would imagine there would have been some hostility from her parents side if they knew about Cullin's secret identity.
I think there were a few werewolves, in the movie, who were passing as human, to.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Could we add the Crying Game? Hahahaha!
If you don't believe in Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it, put this in your sig.
True. I don't think anyone else has thought of gender passing.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
Has anyone mentioned Kings Go Forth? This may not qualify because Natalie Wood's character did not really try to pass for white....she made sure the two men interested in her knew about her back ground. Even though she did not tell them upon first meeting them, she did in a reasonable amount of time.
share
I remember there was this early 90s tv movie(maybe it was hallmark or disney) I saw set in the 50s about a light skin black boy who seeks out his rich white father after his mother dies, since the boy looks white, the family lets him move in with them and the rest of the movie is centered around his complex relationship with his white brother and whether his white family is worth him turning his back on his black heritage
And then recently there's was a straight to dvd movie Rain(which is online for free at IMDb and legal to watch) about a light skinned black girl finding out she was abandoned as a baby and that her birth mother was white and had secretly paid her black mother to take the baby in as her own. The girl comes to live with her judgemental white grandmother(Faye Dunnaway) and she attends this rich elite private school and wears her mothers old clothes. (its a little bit cheesy and the lead actress is painfully bad at acting)
Halle Berry has a few films on the subject of passing, other than the tv miniseries Queen(which imo, other than Immitation of Life is a really in depth detailed look into the bitter turmoil of passing), theres her bio epic on Dorothy Dandrige, and, i forgot the title, but it was a 3hour Oprah Winfrey production about an upperclass snobby black family(the mother half whiteand rich with inherited money from her rich white mother) set in the early 60s and theres two daughters, one the parents are ashamed of because she married a working class blackman, the other daughter(Halle Berry) is the prize of the family (since she got all the white genes) and who is about to marry a white musician but is guiltly drawn to a lower class black single father after he persues her and questions her intentions for marrying a white man, its an interesting movie on the subject with intriguing backstories on each family member.
Jacks
A film about a half Native American individual who is passing for white in 1800s Oklahoma in order to avenge the lynching of three innocent Native Americans by a white mob. He watches as the mob ring leaders get off in court and even uses his ability to pass to get close to the assailants. It is only at the end does his background become obvious.
When this movie was aired on the local Early Show, back when I was in high school, it always reminded me of books like Lillian Smith's "Strange Fruit" about racism in the South. The Native American didn't live on a reservation, as in most westerns, but in a place the whites called "Indian Town" (N-word Town?). The setting had a sort of Jim Crow era feel to it.
Apparently I was on to something. I just found out the movie was based on a The 1950 novel by Arther Gordon about a black World War Two veteran who returns to his home town in Georgia to avenge the lynching of his wife and thee other African Americans. None of the online descriptions of the novel say anything about the main character passing for white but the other majors details are similar.
Hollywood got a hold of the story and between the still in effect Motion Picture Code restrictions and studio gutlessness what could have been a strong indictment of Southern Racial violence became another 1800s western.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
........"Soul Man" with C Thomas Hollow as a short on funds white college student. When he learns a black scholarship, to Harvard, is available he starts taking tanning pills and passes for black in order to get it. If this plot of this mid eighties movie sounds bad it is; somewhere Al Jolson is smiling bad.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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I wish I remembered, all I know for sure is that it was a TV movie not a theatrical one and it was one of those Sunday night TV movies that get syndicated on Lifetime. It was not an expensive production, the whole cast was unknowns, and not so good actors. I specifically remember that the actor who played the main character was sooooooo gorgeous, like the male version of Vanessa Williams lol.
Jacks
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I tried the I need to know board and they didn't even have any idea what movie it is. The movie must be obscure because often they have information on movies that don't even exist anymore. Maybe it was an episode for a cable TV series.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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The movie with Halle Berry, produced by Harpo Productions, is called "The Wedding." It's a mini-series that originally aired on ABC and is based on a short novel by Dorothy West, a member of the Harlem Renaissance. Great story about members of the Black Elite who frequent Martha's Vineyard.
Another really fantastic, yet disturbing, mini-series that focuses on the quadroons and octoroons of New Orleans, is "The Feast of All Saints" that aired on HBO in the 90s. It stars James Earl Jones as the son of a quadroon and a wealthy plantation owner. Check it out!
Well maybe. There is some discussion on the "J. Edger" board whether or not the up coming Leonardo DiCaprio movie, about Jay Edger Hoover, will explore the famous FBI director's reported black ancestry and his efforts to conceal it. Given all of Hoover's other well known personal demons will there be enough time in the film to get it all in?.
Some years ago Millie McGehee, an obviously black relative of Hoover's, wrote "What is Done in the Dark" where she discussed how her family was threatened with "being burned in their beds" if they ever revealed the secret of Hoover's African American ancestry. Taken along with Hoovers hostile indifference to the civil rights movement and bugging of Dr Martin Luther King's bedroom and other racist actions all of this certainly raises some major self hatred issues.
Clint Eastwood, who is producing the movie, has taken a warts and all approach to his other historic films so he might explore the subject. Race was a major issue during the time Hoover ran the FBI.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
.......A video documentary by Tyler Peary, based on Millie McGehee's book, about her families connection to J. Edger Hoover and his efforts to keep it a secret.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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No, I haven't seen it either but it is listed on IMdB.
The plot. according to the film's IMdB page, center es on Cynthia Wood (Cynthia Hall), a seventeen year old light skinned black women, who passes for white in order to get a job from a film producer who has problems with his own family. The only information, beyond that, is the movie was filmed in Dallas, Texas, in black and white and was the first and only movie released by Denario Production.
So was Cynthia Hull (Ms. Wood in the film) the first black actress, since Fredi Washington, to play a passing movie or was she the last white actress to get away with playing a black character?.
Her IMdB site doesn't even give the date or place of her birth. Aside from "High Yellow" she appeared in a number of TV series like "Kojak", Hawaii Five-0, "Mod Squad" and others playing ( based on character names) Hispanic, Native American, Greek, East Indian, Italian and ethically non specific characters. Around the same time Frank Silvera, a racial ambiguous black actor, was play the same sort of roles she might of been doing the same thing. I guess we will never know.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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I know it is already listed but "I Passed for White" is currently posted on U-Tube.
No I haven't found whatever movie/TV show JacksCatGirl was asking about.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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