Kiri Laurelle Davis is an American

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her first documentary, '' A Girl Like Me'' (2005), made while enrolled at Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, received significant news coverage. Kiri Davis' mother, an education consultant, raised her daughter to be proud of her

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

heritage.''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 Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, a

historically black university Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

in Washington DC for the fall 2007 semester.Official Web Page: Kiri Davis Biography
Accessed August 27, 2007. When aged just 16 and a student at the Urban Academy, Davis became interested in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'', and also

Kenneth and Mamie Clark Kenneth Bancroft Clark (July 24, 1914 – May 1, 2005) and Mamie Phipps Clark (April 18, 1917 – August 11, 1983) were American psychologists who as a married team conducted research among children and were active in the Civil Rights Movement. Th ...

's groundbreaking study of

color preferences In the psychology of color, color preferences are the tendency for an individual or a group to prefer some colors over others, such as having a favorite color or a traditional color. Introduction An 'ecological valence theory' (EVT) has bee ...

among young black children. She repeated the Clark study and asked children to choose between two dolls: a light-skinned one and a dark-skinned one. Fifteen out of the twenty-one children preferred the lighter-skinned doll when asked to pick "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 women today in the United States.

Screenings

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

*The 6th Annual Media That Matters. *

Silverdocs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Started ...

: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival *HBO

Awards

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

Film appearances

Davis discusses ''A Girl Like Me'' in the 2008 film ''

The Black Candle ''The Black Candle'' is a documentary film about Kwanzaa directed by M. K. Asante and narrated by Maya Angelou. The film premiered on cable television on Starz on November, 2012. Synopsis ''The Black Candle'' uses Kwanzaa as a vehicle to explore ...

'', directed by

M. K. Asante, Jr. M. K. Asante (born November 3, 1982) is an American author, filmmaker, recording artist, and professor. He is the author of the 2013 best-selling memoir Buck: A Memoir, ''Buck''.

and narrated by

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

References

External links

Kiri Davis' Official WebsiteKiri Davis Biography
at Media That Matters
''New 'Doll Test' Produces Ugly Results''
August 16, 2006 ''Baltimore Times''.
''African-American Images: The New Doll Test''
October 2, 2006 on ''Talk of the Nation'',

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. :Video:
''A Girl Like Me''
Entire documentary on

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

website with introductory text. Accessed August 27, 2007.
''A Girl Like Me: Background''
a discussion of making the documentary *"A Girl Like Me" segment, October 11, 2006 on ''Good Morning America'',

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Kiri African-American film directors American film directors American documentary filmmakers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people