Can’t get enough Barbie this year? You don’t want to miss this joyful and intriguing story about the creation and evolution of Black Barbie.

Love her or hate her, almost everyone has a Barbie story. For filmmaker Lagueria Davis, it all started with her 83-year-old Aunt Beulah Mae and a seemingly simple question, “Why not make a Barbie that looks like me?”

Black Barbie is a personal exploration that tells a richly archival, thought-provoking story that gives voice to the insights and experiences of Beulah Mae Mitchell, who spent 45 years working at Mattel.

Upon Mattel’s 1980 release of Black Barbie, the film turns to the intergenerational impact the doll had. Discussing how the absence of black images in the “social mirror” left Black girls with little other than white subjects for self-reflection and self-projection.

Beulah Mae Mitchell and other Black women in the film talk about their own, complex, varied experience of not seeing themselves represented, and how Black Barbie’s transformative arrival affected them personally.

Director Lagueria Davis will participate in a Q&A (via Zoom) after the October 16 screening.

Tickets: $15 (Members from $10)