The Color of Friendship (2000)

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The Color of Friendship Movie Poster

The Color of Friendship is a television film directed by Kevin Hooks who released on February 5, 2000 and based on true events.This film tells the story of a young black girl who befriends with a South African exchange student named Mahree Bok. They form friendship despite having misinterpreted views about each other's cultures, and Piper's father is deeply opposed to the apartheid regime in South Africa. It starring

Plot

Set in 1977, African American Congressman Carl Lumbly participated in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, especially after Stephen Biko was imprisoned. The congressman’s teenage daughter, Shadia Simmons, convinced him and her mother Roscoe (Penny Johnson) to let an exchange student live in their home for four months. At the same time, Mahree Bok (Lindsey Haun) asked her mother to return to South Africa and asked her father (a police officer) to agree to her participation in the exchange program. She is very happy to live in America.

Lindsey Haun as Mahree Bok and Shadia Simmons as Piper Dellums

At the airport, both girls get a rude awakening. The South African teen, Mahree (Lindsay Haun), is expecting a white family, while Piper and her family are excited to be hosting a black African. At first, Mahree retreated to her bedroom and locked the door. All her views of the blacks are undercut by the Dellums, who are well-to-do, sophisticated, and willing to let her go like her hosts. Out of sheer stubbornness to prove that her father and younger brother were wrong, Mahree decided to stick it out in America.

During her stay, Mahree sees people of different races come along and realizes how much she and Piper have in common. Both of them have been good friends. Both of them appear to have a nice time at the mall, trying on various clothes, and so on. Mahree is also forced to overcome her own propensity to see her host family as dangerous servants and odd black people, and learns to live day by day among them. She also refuses to admit, however, that the system is oppressive and wrong in her own country, or that her own family has a hand in perpetuating it.

When the South African Embassy in Washington forcibly expelled her from Dellums's home and told her that as a minor she must go home, Mahri's eyes really opened. This was the first time in her life that she was like a prisoner, deprived of her rights and feelings. A story that Flora told her became the touchstone of Mahree's new understanding of tolerance and, together with others, created a world free of prejudice and racial hatred.

Pros

The Color of Friendship scene

This film shows a way to both define and resolve the racial difference. Each one of them has an essential message that will make people understand more about others that are different. It's important because even though one doesn't have any problems with someone of a different color, other people will.[1]

"A smart, intricate portrayal of racism and the political climate of the 1970s, both in the U.S. and South Africa." The Color of Friendship deals with the issue of racism with intricacy and heart, and reveals the strength of education and love over all else. His positive message is still extremely relevant today, and can be understood by all ages and races, wrapped in a family and friendship story.[2]

"We can not afford to be color blind." This film has done an outstanding job of showing that not everyone is the same and that race/ethnicity needs to be remembered if we want to get through social injustices anywhere in this country and abroad. The film experimented with racial problems in a real way, like the bad words used at the time to demonstrate how black people were disrespected in both the U.S. and South Africa.[3]

Reference