If you happened to see the documentary film Dark Girls by D. Channsin Berry and Bill Duke (which is a film that explored the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color—particularly focused on dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture) then you probably will understand the following story.
After the success of the film Dark Girls which toured the country hitting schools, churches, small theaters, and eventually broadcast on The OWN Network, fans started asking the film makers if they would do a follow up to the film. If you didn’t see the film these questions were asked because Dark Girls touched on so many issues about race, and the way people of color generally have prejudices among themselves because of their darker skin tone, and much more.
These questions eventually opened up the door to other statements as people asked the film makers about more topics that could have been discussed but wasn’t covered in the film. This eventually opened up the possibility of a follow up to the film Dark Girls, which became the new film Light Girls.
We discovered that film maker Bill Duke moved forward with the sequel as he even changed the tone of the film as he made it much funnier as he interviewed more comedians than in the original (Dark Girls featured Michael Colyar).
In this new film, there are comedians who are prominently asked about their skin tone and many more questions, which are asked in a funnier manner for the film. The comics featured are in Light Girls are Kym Whitley, Luenell, Aida Rodriguez, Hope Flood, and Zainab Johnson.
We are sure you know Kym Whitley from OWN’s reality series Raising Whitley and several films such as A Haunted House 2 and We Bought A Zoo, and the hit TV series Black Dynamite. Whitley lands as in the film and gives her commentary along with other comedians such as Luenell, who also has been in comedy for years and has a long list of credits from feature films to stand up, with films like Think Like A Man, School Dance and Borat just to name a few. Comedian Hope Flood, being in comedy for more than 20 years and having been in almost every stand up comedy show from Starz’s 1st Amendment Stand Up to feature films as well such as Baby Boy also has several interesting comments.
It doesn’t end there; comedian Aida Rodriguez adds her comments to the film from a Latin perspective; you may know Aida as she has recently been featured as one of the finalists on the new NBC’s retake of Last Comic Standing and several independent films such as Wishes and The Greatest Song. The other comedian featured is Zainab Johnson, who is not rookie anymore in the comedy world as she had a quick stint on several TV shows but made a name for herself on the new The Arsenio Hall Show, and on the new revamp of Comic View. Zainab also an actress as she has several independent films under her belt; she was in the films Oakville and Cuffing Season. Zainab lends her voice from a darker skinned perspective with some funny commentary also.
According to our sources, Duke even went in to several comedy clubs to film certain performances of the mentioned comedians. Anyway, the new film Light Girls tackles the many issues that lighter skinned women face and we hear that the film is set to debut on The OWN Network on Monday at 9 PM.
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Kym Whitley:
Luenell:
Hope Flood:
Aida Rodriguez:
Zainab Johnson:
