‘Black Barbie: A Documentary’ Picked Up By Netflix And Shonda Rhimes Right On Time

On March 9, 1959, an 11″ doll changed the toy world for girls, forever. However, as Black Barbie: A Documentary points out, it took more than 20 years for any girl who wasn’t white to experience that jubilant feeling.

A cut from this riveting documentary written and directed by Lagueria Davis debuted at SXSW this past March. A few months later, the world spent nearly $1.4 billion to witness Greta Gerwig‘s vision. A few months after that (this one to be exact), Davis got a call. She heard Netflix and Shondaland acquired global rights to make Black Barbie into a full-streaming event.

The logline for the project reads: “Black Barbie 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.”

Black Barbie: A Family Affair

This indie documentary picked up by Shonda Rhimes is the “opportunity of a lifetime.” For Lagueria Davis, it truly is. Her aunt is Miss Beulah Mae Mitchell. She worked at Mattel for 45 years and has close ties to the creation of a “Black Barbie.”

Davis is as invested in this real-life story as it gets. Her vantage point about this untold component of the Barbie empire is one of pride. Her aunt is one of only three women who challenged Mattel to bring Black Barbie to the forefront. The passion and grit captured through this documentary should be contagious and inspirational.

A note on the Black Barbie Film website notes: “Black Barbie: A Documentary is part of a broader movement to increase understanding of the importance of representation for Black women. As is too often overlooked, because they belong to two minority groups, Black Women tend to fall through the cracks in arguments and studies about representation. To address this issue, we ask that Black female cultural producers like the filmmaker, shape narratives that speak to Black women and girls’ reality, experience, and vision.”

The cut at SXSW earlier this year highlights the dubious “doll test” of the 1940s. Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark studied the psychological effects of segregation on Black children, ages 3 to 7. Any psych school on any U.S. college campus shares this litmus test of esteem as a lens of juvenile identity.

The test may seem perfunctory at first, but these were star expert witnesses for the transformational Brown v. Board of Education case. It was their landmark study that found Black dolls were viewed as “bad” and white dolls were “good.” At that time, brave and insightful women like Miss Beulah knew if they could course-correct the idea of self-worth among American Black girls, they would.

Black Barbie: A Documentary is that important story–one that girls of any color (young and old alike) should see.

Writer-director Davis also produced the film for Lovely Day Films alongside Aaliyah Williams for Just A Rebel. In addition to Rhimes and Beers, executive producers include LinLay Productions’ Grace Lay and Sumalee Montano; Lady & Bird Films’ Camilla Hall; Milan Chakraborty; and Jyoti Sarda. No date has been announced for the documentary.