Documentary Synopsis
Part I) Documentary Proposal
My documentary will be mainly based on intimate interviews and personal narrations
using voice-overs. Several different images of interviews and geographical locations,
along with photographs of interviewees and past documentary video clips will serve as
main component for this documentary. I would like to find three to four interracial
couples from different eras of history to exhibit the change in interracial relationships and
the trends it has taken to evolve. Range of couples will be from black and white, brown
to yellow and non-U.S. born couples in hopes of creating a full display of understanding
in interracial barriers and recreating the definition of interracial love.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The most alarming set back in interracial relationships is that racism cannot be simply
erased by ‘love’ nor does intimacy automatically equate to acceptance of your partner’s
differences. Racism is a powerful thought process of the mind, a creation of rigid
paradigm of our understanding and acceptance of those around us. These rigid paradigms
of our mind we carry about race are most blatantly displayed in the settings of interracial
intimacy and in our choice of partners.
In my film, racism will be represented through different lenses of interaction based on
interviews of the following questions (Interviewees will be selected through
randomization based on age, color, gender and geographical location):
1) What is your family like?
Where did you grow up?
What was your childhood like?
2) How do you identify yourself?
How do you view yourself in comparison to other Asian Americans?
3) Have you ever felt racial tension?
Racial tension from friends?
Racial tension from your significant other?
4) Do you agree with how minorities are portrayed in the media?
Do you think media has an impact on the dating scene?
5) Have you ever been stereotyped?
Have you stereotyped others?
6) Is there a particular race you would not date?
Based on these questions and answers from my interviews, I will be able to divide the
film into six components related to interracial dating: 1) family formation 2) racial
competition in the dating scene 3) stereotypes 4) racism, 5) interracial relationships.
*Media representation and its influences were addressed throughout Racial Competition
and Stereotypes*
1) Family Formation
Family formation influences our perspectives on race and race relations. In addition, the
society (make up of family formations) perpetuates these ideas through the media and
stereotypes, affecting our dating scene and dating choices.
2) Racial Competition in the Dating Scene
Racial competition is the main component of my documentary, as it is heavily focused in
the interracial dating scene. An interesting aspect in interracial dating is that the status
and struggle for power is mainly based on race, the notion of racial and gender hierarchy
and its influence in the dating scene. Whiteness or “white characteristic” is often equated
to a certain level of power.
5) Interracial Relationships
I divided interracial relationships into two parts:
I) problems in interracial relationships
II) how (racial) balance is achieved in interracial relationships.
I) Racial tension is not only found within the relationship but outside the relationship,
perpetuated by the society. In several cases, interracial couples are reminded of racial
differences through comments made by outsiders. In interracial marriages, often the
couples’ children are not recognized as a family unit based on their racial makeup.
II) Balance in interracial relationship is achieved based on how people in the relationship
react to these racial tensions. Some couples may “play along” with racial comments to
ease the tension or they may embrace the racial difference of their families.
Interracial intimacy does not necessarily erase racism instead it can be served as a site
for the creation of and perpetuation of racial categories and hierarchies. People who
engage in interracial relationships may be accepting of their partner’s difference, but
they can still hold onto their rigid paradigm (racist views).
Interracial intimacy is a crucial site for the creation of and
perpetuation of racial categories and hierarchies. Intimate
relationships between people of different races reveal our
institutional unease with both color-blindness and colorconsciousness. The solution doesn't depend on a surge in
interracial relationships, but perhaps there is a correlation
between a willingness to seek out a partner from a different
background and involvement in relationships other than
state-sanctioned marriage”
Rachel F. Moran
Another aspect that could be related to my documentary is religion. Perhaps that religion
and spiritual bond could help achieve racial balance and equality in interracial
relationships.
A politically pioneering aspect of the documentary can be the concept behind individual
equality versus collective equality. Based on couples’ need to correct racial tension from
may determine their political stance on racial equality.
QUOTES
“Six-hundred-twenty university students completed an anonymous confidential
questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward interracial dating. Almost one fourth
(24.2%) reported having dated interracially and almost half (49.6%) expressed an
openness to become involved in an interracial relationship.”
Interracial Dating Attitudes among College Students by David Knox
Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them
on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be
no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not
intend for the races to mix
Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 1967
Racial barriers and tension between America’s ideal of a color-blind society and the
reality of continual race segregation is most evident in the dating scene.
"The choice of a mate is not entirely individual because romantic preferences are highly
contextualized. While love itself may seem like an irrational impulse, the most intimate of
feelings is a product of social forces that transcend the individual. ... For Loving's
promise of marital freedom and racial equality to be realized, Americans must confront
the ways in which race has distorted social boundaries rather than retreat into the easy
and unreflective innocence of romantic individualism" Rachel F. Moran.
________________________________________________________________________
Introduction scene [hypothetically considering that I was able to find my ideal
interviewees, after all it is a proposal paper]:
Scene I: Fast picture slides of different faces; different races using black and white photos
to color images to capture the flow of time in history.
Scene II: Fast images coming to a slow halt as it focus on a black and white image of a
couple [slowly zooming in] introduced with a voice of the characters in the picture.
“When I first met Walter, he was sitting at the colored section and it was forbidden for
him to even look my way but he kept on staring.”
“She was just so damn beautiful, I couldn’t help myself”
Scene III: As the voice trails off, it switches to live interview images of now an old
couple sitting on a Victorian style couch with ivory wallpaper. Holding hands and
looking bit stiff in front the unfamiliar camera.
“Are you still in madly in love?”-My voice
“Yes, we are”
Scene IV: As my question trails off, a new interview with different interracial couple in
their late twenties and early thirties holding a biracial child in the same Victorian style
chair.
“What is the name of you son/daughter’s?”-My voice
“Violet”
*this transition and particular couple is to foreshadow the documentary’s exploration into
biracial childhood and their livelihoods, which can lead to a second edition of the
documentary*
I will introduce to other couples in this mannerism in the introduction segment to
familiarize the viewers. In addition, I will have clips of different couples holding
homemade signs with the title of my film and credits in the beginning. This style of
filming is to deliver an unedited feel and perhaps even my own signature method.
Viral Ad on Save Our Seas (SOS) Campaign
Scene I EXT: Scene of the dark ocean with glimpses of pink and fading blue in the sky
[approximately 5am]. Then the following view would be of the sunrise hitting the ocean
displaying amazing surf/wave breaks. This initial scene is to notate on the calmness and
clean-ness of the beach untouched by human efforts.
Scene II: The camera follows the ‘sound’ of crashing waves traveling passed the beach,
over freeways into suburbia making its path into a young boy’s bedroom window.
INT: Dark, unlit average sized bedroom with light blue paint and big white French
window with matching decorative blue pillows similar to his overall ambience of the
room. Surfboards stacked up against the walls and posters of pro-surfers riding legendary
waves and bikini clad models.
Scene III INT: The same sunrise of the ocean finally reaches through his French window
and the ‘sound’ of the waves almost tickling to wake him up. A dirty blond boy of
almost seventeen tussles in his bed for a while, but suddenly jolts out of his bed with an
excited grin.
Scene IV INT: Struggling to zip up his black wetsuit in the white tiled bathroom adjacent
to his room, he rushes down stairs still in excitement searching for something. As he
comes across the corner on the bottom of the wooden staircase the boy yells “Mom! Have
you seen my surfboard?!”
Scene V INT: White kitchen tiles with hints of blue, still early on a Sunday morning,
sunrays seeping through big kitchen windows. A slim figured lady in her forties, with
short hair cut resembling the young boy peeks out of the kitchen to the staircase, “Before
you can go anywhere, you have to wash your car first.”
The boy steps into the kitchen “But mom…”
“I told you last week you need to keep your car clean and it’s your responsibility. Wash
the car on the grass please.”
Scene VI EXT: Still in a rush to catch the surf, the young boy grudgingly hurries out
through the backdoor with cleaning gears and a bucket. Still wearing his wet suit he
begins to soap up his black truck on the concrete driveway instead of the grass. As he
sprays his car with water onto the drive quick shots of soap foam flowing down his
driveway into the street gutter.
Scene VII EXT: The sun is out with a clear day (10am) with bright blue sky. The boy
driving in black truck with surfboards tightened onto his truck bed, car windows open
and his hair blown by the wind. Onto his left you can start to see the ocean just off the
cliff with good waves coming in. The boy is grinning and excited to finally arrive for
surf sessions. He parks his car up on the cliff and grabs onto his board, heading down the
trail towards the beach (Jalama Beach).
Scene VIII EXT: As he slowly approaches the [sandy] beach he notices a hazardous sign
on the beach against swimming and surfing due to drainage pollution. There is a huge
sewer drainage flowing into the ocean and you can visibly notice the “foam” floating
directly out onto the ocean. Same soap foam that washed down from his driveway into
the street gutter. What seemed like a clean beach from scene I is now completely
different.
Scene XI EXT: The young boy looks to his left and notices other surfers in
[wetsuits/holding onto their boards] dismay. He looks passed the surfers; up onto the
cliff where his truck and other cars are parked to notice how ‘clean’ all the vehicles look.
Scene X: Save the Ocean campaign logo.