Too Black to Be French?

The first time filmmaker Isabelle Boni-Claverie really realized she was black was when she was cast as Balthazar in the Christmas play at school: the black one of the Three Kings. The teacher was so pleased that there was finally a child of color at school, she immediately made use of it. Boni-Claverie is from an extremely privileged background – she once even went on vacation with the future king of the Netherlands, but even today she is often subject to discrimination. How can someone with her social position be continually disadvantaged in this way? In Too Black to Be French?, she examines racism in France on the basis of her own history and that of French colonialism. Together with historians and sociologists, she probes the question of whether the French Republic lied about its ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. This is a personal story that raises important social issues.