Kiri Davis

Kiri Laurelle Davis is an African-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her first documentary, done while enrolled at Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, "A Girl Like Me" (2005) has received significant news coverage.

Kiri Davis' mother, an education consultant, raised her daughter to be proud of her race and color. [http://www.btimes.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=10180&sID=3 "New 'Doll Test' Produces Ugly Results"] , August 16, 2006 "Baltimore Times".] After completing her high school education two years after making her award-winning documentary, Davis was due to matriculate at Howard University, a historically black university in Washington DC for the fall 2007 semester. [http://www.kiridavis.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=6 Official Web Page: Kiri Davis Biography] . Accessed August 27, 2007.]

When just 16 and a student at the Urban Academy, Davis became interested in "Brown v. Board of Education", and also Kenneth and Mamie Clark's groundbreaking study of color preferences among young black children. She repeated the Clark study and asked children to choose between one of two dolls: a light- and a dark-skinned doll. Fifteen out of the twenty-one children preferred the lighter doll when asked to choose "the nice doll."

The documentary that resulted includes selections from her repeat study and interviews with friends who talk about the importance of color, hair quality, and facial features for young black woman today in the United States.

creenings

*Tribeca Film Festival
*The 6th Annual Media That Matters.
*Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival
*HBO

Awards

*Winner of The Diversity Award at the 6th Annual Media That Matters film festival

Film Appearances

She appears in the 2008 film The Black Candle, directed by M.K. Asante, Jr. and narrated by Maya Angelou

References

External links

* [http://www.kiridavis.com Kiri Davis' Official Website]
* [http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/a_girl_like_me/index.php?fs=bios Kiri Davis Biography] at Media That Matters
* [http://www.btimes.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=10180&sID=3 "New 'Doll Test' Produces Ugly Results"] , August 16, 2006 "Baltimore Times".
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6181729 "African-American
] , October 2, 2006 on "Talk of the Nation", NPR.

:Video:
* [http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=1185 "A Girl Like Me"] , Entire documentary on NAACP website with introductory text. Accessed August 27, 2007.
* [http://www.uthtv.com/umedia/show/2052/ "A Girl Like Me: Background"] a discussion of making the documentary
*"A Girl Like Me" segment, October 11, 2006 on "Good Morning America", ABC.