“White Wash” Documentary Film Screening and Panel Session
“White Wash” explores the complexity of race in America through the eyes of the ocean via the history of African Americans and water culture from slavery, civil rights wade-ins to surfing in contemporary times. The subject’s past interpretation and American cultural memory inclusion or not of these stories in the local and national discourses are probed.
Filmmaker Ted Woods looks through a different lens than traditionally has been used in examining the cultural politics of Southern California’s beach and popular culture. In this film he investigates the complexity of race and identity in America through the eyes of the ocean via the history of African Americans and water culture from slavery, civil rights wade-ins to surfing at California and Mexican sites in contemporary times. Also explored is the history of “black consciousness,” triumphing and evolving in the minds of black female and male surfers as they experience the power of transcending race as a constructive phenomenon.
The subject’s past interpretation and American cultural memory inclusion or not of these stories in the local and national discourses are probed. Filmed interviews of professional and recreational surfers, and contemporary scholars are woven with historical archive footage to create a rich text. African Americans surfers have not been examined in sports and recreation, or African American history scholarship.
Grammy Award winners Ben Harper and Tariq “Blackthought” Trotter of the hip-hop group, The Roots (who also provide the film’s score) provide the story’s narration. The English language, 78-minute picture was released in the U.S. in 2011 by Virgil Entertainment. Reviewed by the scholarly journal, The Public Historian (Vol. 34, No. 2, May, 2012) and numerous other publications, the documentary earned a nomination for “Best Diaspora Feature” at the 2012 African Movie Academy Awards.
Discussion at the screening will include: Ted Woods, director/filmmaker; Alison Rose Jefferson, historian/UC Santa Barbara doctoral candidate; and Dedon Kamathi, activist/surfer/radio personality/real estate appraiser.