The filmmaker Vic Sarin discusses his new documentary, Hue: A Matter of Colour, skin colour, race, family, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

There’s a fantastic new documentary that will be playing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, it’s called Hue: A Matter of Colour. It’s a moving, thoughtful and terribly interesting look at skin colour. It’s sort of about racism, but it’s about pigmentation, and how it’s reacted to throughout the world, chiefly the film’s director, who explores his own past and upbringing, and various cultures around the world where there is discrimination within racial groups based solely on colour. This isn’t discussed in the film, but there are always discussions about Barack Obama based on his skin colour, from within the black community, as to whether or not he’s in fact black enough. In this movie, Vic Sarin, who joins me now, starts off in Brazil, a country he likes because they seem not as hung up on skin colour, where Brazilians range in various shades. He digs below the surface to illustrate some of the tensions, and the underlying discrimination that does occurs. He goes to the Philippines where he meets a woman who’s built an empire selling skin whitening products. He visits Tanzania, where albinos there often face death because they’re lighter skinned. In India, Mr Sarin looks at his own childhood, as well as the struggle of darker skinned brides to find husbands, because men seemingly prefer lighter skinned ones. In South Africa, hate and skin colour are discussed amidst the context of Apartheid and beyond. I’ll ask Vic Sarin about the impetus to make a personal movie as he has, and the sort of dialogue he’d like to begin on colourism and colour discrimination. Vic Sarin is a prolific, award winning filmmaker who directed films such as A Shine of Rainbows and Partition, which he also wrote. As a highly regarded cinematographer, his credits include Heartaches, Loyalties, Bye Bye Blues, and Margaret’s Museum. Hue: A Matter of Colour has two more screenings: Tuesday, 01 October 2013 at 4.15pm at SFU Woodwards, and Friday, 11 October 2013 at 10.00am at the Vancity Theatre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Vic Sarin; Mr. Sarin, good morning.

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