''A Girl like Me'' is a 2005

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

by Kiri Davis. The seven-minute documentary examines such things as the importance of color, hair and facial features for young African American women. It won the Diversity Award at the 6th Annual

Media That Matters Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inte ...

film festival in

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, and has received coverage on various American media sources, such as

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. The documentary has been shown on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. The documentary was made as part of Reel Works Teen Filmmaking.

Synopsis

The video begins with interviews with Kiri Davis and her peers about how black features did not conform to society's standards of beauty. The next section was a repeat of an experiment conducted by

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

in the 1940s where African-American children were asked to choose between black or white dolls. In the original experiment(s) the majority of the children choose the white dolls. When Davis repeated the experiment 15 out of 21 children also choose the white dolls over the black, giving similar reasons as the original subjects, associating white with being pretty or good and black with ugly or bad. The dolls used in the documentary were identical except for skin colour.

Awards

*The Diversity Award at the 6th Annual Media That Matters film festival *The SILVERDOCS Audience Award for a Short Documentary.

Screenings

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

*The 6th Annual Media That Matters. *

Silverdocs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival was an American international film festival. Created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel, it was held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., fro ...

: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival *HBO

External links

*Edney, Hazel Trice. "New 'Doll Test' Produces Ugly Results", ''Baltimore Times'', August 16, 2006

*Johnson, L. A. (2006). Documentary, Studies Renew Debate about Skin Color's Impact. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh

*''A Girl Like Me'', Entire documentary o
mediathatmattersfest.org
*"A Girl Like Me", Media That Matters
Biography
of Davis *"A Girl Like Me"
Discussion
of the background of making the documentary * "BLACK KIDS’ SELF IMAGE-NO PROGRESS" by Marian Wright Edelma

*"A Girl Like Me", ''Good Morning, America'', ABC, October 11, 2006. *"African-American Images: The New Doll Test", ''Talk of the Nation'', NPR, October 2, 2006

* "A Girl Like Me" appears i
RACE: Are we so different?
a public education program developed by the American Anthropological Association. {{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Like Me, A American independent films Discrimination based on skin tone Universal Pictures films Documentary films about African Americans 2005 films American short documentary films 2005 documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language short documentary films