Black Barbie: A Documentary – Acquired By Shondaland And Netflix
https://youtu.be/nz5oQtdCrVI?si=8Bn44Mh5HR4lZ7pa
The Barbie movie is a global success. It’s now one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Making $1.34 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, it’s also one of the only female-dominated movies among the top movies of all time. It’s also only the second movie to join the billion dollar club with year. The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit a billion earlier this year. Well one of the previously untold stories about Barbie, is the story of Black Barbie. Until now. Shondaland and Netflix have acquired a new documentary directed by Lagueria Davis.
What’s the Documentary about?
Black Barbie: A Documentary celebrates the momentous impact three Black women at Mattel had on the evolution of the Barbie brand as we know it. Through these charismatic insiders’ stories, the documentary tells the story of how the first Black Barbie came to be in 1980, examining the importance of representation and how dolls can be crucial to the formation of identity and imagination. For director Lagueria Davis, this story is personal. Davis says, “Telling Black Barbie’s story has been such a personal journey and it warms my heart to celebrate the legacy of my aunt Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, and Stacey McBride Irby in our film. We couldn’t have asked for better collaborators than Shondaland and Netflix to bring this story to the world.” (Netflix press release)
Why Black Barbie representation matters
Diversity and representation matters in so many way, and in many areas of life. In the world of toys, it’s something that can have an affect on how children view themselves, and how they view where they fit in the world. As critic Glenn Dunks wrote the film “isn’t just about black Barbie dolls. It’s about representation, and about the biases at play in an industry that for so long never ever conceived of the idea of black children wanting a doll like Barbie.”
