Mulatto (2018)

In this story, Hannah, an 11-year-old girl lives with Andrew, her biased father. Andrew has strong beliefs about race because of the way he was raised. But despite his convictions, he fell in love with Hannah's mother, a black woman. With the absence of Hannah's mother, Andrew is Hannah's sole caretaker. His anger at Hannah's mother and his way of thinking brings all sorts of hell his daughter's way. The most interesting part of this whole situation is that despite his issues, he really does love his daughter. This really complicates matters for Hannah, because laced into his love is an ultimatum. Through his dialogue and mannerisms, he tries to deny Hannah of her identity, and if she is to fit in with him, she must deny it too. Hannah finds her mother's dress, on that dress are a few butterfly patches. As the film goes on, the butterfly and images of nature become symbols representing the mother. The father is a mechanic. His space is crowded by metal objects. Cold and hard man-made contraptions. Man-made contraptions tend to destroy nature and this was our way of hinting at why Hannah's mother is no longer around. In the film, Hannah has to make a choice. Instead of simplifying a complex decision by making it a choice between races, we give the issue proper headspace by placing the decision in the realm of symbolism. Will she embrace nature or the destruction of it?